Big car slump hits industry

FORD Falcon and Holden Commodore have recorded dismal January sales in another blow for the local car manufacturing industry.

Commodore

FORMER showroom favourites Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore have recorded dismal January sales in another blow for the local car manufacturing industry.

The continued demise of locally made large cars, as buyers increasingly turn to sports utilities, will fire the debate over government subsidies for car manufacturers, two of which this week announced job cuts.

More than 5000 extra SUVs were bought last month compared with the start of last year, making them more popular than small cars and lifting overall vehicle sales 4.3 per cent.

"This is an encouraging January sales result and provides a good start to 2012," the chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Ian Chalmers, said yesterday.

Demand for Commodores slumped 18 per cent compared with January last year and the Falcon recorded its worst month ever, with fewer than 1000 sales.

The figures were released after Holden this week announced 100 jobs would go from its Adelaide factory while Toyota will make 350 redundant from its Melbourne plant.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead Phipps said a Christmas Day hailstorm in Melbourne had left it short of stock built up before the December factory shutdown.

"We had built up stock of Falcon and Territory to ship to our dealers during January," she said. "More than 1500 of those vehicles received some level of damage during the storm, which required rework and repair before being sent to dealers, which obviously delayed shipments and sales."

The Commodore, which was knocked off a 15-year reign as bestseller last year, fell to fourth place behind three small cars.

With more than 4000 buyers, the Mazda 3 again led the market followed by the Toyota Corolla and Holden's own locally built Cruze small car, which overshadowed the Commodore for the first time. "Holden's product renaissance is really picking up pace," Holden sales director Philip Brook said. "Our focus remains on building and selling the cars Australians want to buy."

Although small models claimed the top three spots, overall demand for small cars fell as buyers signed up for SUVs.

The locally built Ford Territory ended last year as the bestselling SUV but hail damage and fresh shipments of Japanese imports pushed it down the charts behind the Toyota RAV4 and Kluger, Mazda CX-7 and Nissan X-trail.

The Toyota Camry was the standout among locally made cars as it rolls out a new version of the mid-size sedan.

"Camry celebrated the arrival of the new seventh-generation range with sales up 22 per cent on the same month last year," Toyota's sales and marketing director Matthew Callachor said.

However, Toyota is still suffering from the effects of the Thai floods last year leaving it short of its Hilux workhorse, with sales at one-third normal levels responsible for an 11 per cent drop in demand for light commercials.