Car sales slump for the 20th month straight

It seems as if the time for auto brands aren't being too generous these days. By trading just 2,665 cars in November 2019, which is half of what it sold last year in the same month, Holden has witnessed its sixth record low in the last 11 months. To spray some salt on the wounds, Holden's total number of sales for November 2019 were outnumbered by each of the top three selling cars in Australia.

As for the top-selling vehicles down under, all of the top three spots for 2019 are going to be owned by utes. When we combined the sales figures irrespective of the variant sales, the Toyota Hilux is the outright winner with the Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton taking the second and third spot, respectively. On a side note, the Ford Ranger 4x4 has outsold the Toyota Hilux 4x4 for the eighth month in a row now. Also, the Mitsubishi Triton 4x4 came mighty close to overtake the Toyota Hilux 4x4.

All the top automakers excluding Kia witnessed a drop in their sales charts, with Holden recording a massive 48% decline. Although Isuzu had just two vehicles in its lineup, it gave Holden a proper run for its own money. Kia was the only brand among the top 12 contestants to experience an increase of 10.7%. Following the Global Financial Crisis that transpired around a decade ago, the official VFACTS new-car sales figures that are set to come out tomorrow may exhibit the biggest monthly slowdown since the crisis.

While the sales were down by 8% in October 2019, reports suggest that the numbers went further down during the month of November. "Private buyers are staying away but business fleets are still buying", said a weathered car dealer. He also went to add that Australia is in a "consumer recession, but no-one has said the ‘R’ word yet". But if we go through the official year-to-date figures, the private car sales are down by 7.3%, the government fleets and fleets sales are down by 5.0% and 9.3%, respectively. Furthermore, the Westpac data also depicts a four-year low. "We are not technically in a recession, but there is no doubt car dealers across most brands are struggling with the lowest profit margins in years, tighter consumer credit requirements, and falling sales. The real estate many dealerships sit on is effectively worth more than the business goodwill in many cases,” said David McCarthy, former Mercedes-Benz executive.

Below is the list of top 12 auto brands in Australia in November 2019:

• Toyota - 16,960 sales - ↓ 7.2%
• Hyundai - 6830 sales - ↓ 13.2%
• Mitsubishi - 6825 sales - ↓ 1.8%
• Mazda - 6170 sales - ↓ 30.7%
• Kia 5140 - sales - ↑ 10.7%
• Ford 4995 - sales - ↓ 10.0%
• Nissan 4270 - sales - ↓ 19.8%
• Volkswagen 3920 - sales - ↓ 16.8%
• Honda 3285 - sales - ↓ 12.0%
• Subaru 3140 - sales - ↓ 19.9%
• Holden 2665 - sales - ↓ 48%
• Isuzu 2160 - sales - ↓ 9.5%

Below is the list of top 12 top-selling cars in Australia in November 2019:

• Toyota Hilux - 3685 sales - ↓ 21.0%
• Ford Ranger - 3490 sales - ↑ 0.6%
• Mitsubishi Triton - 3065 sales - ↑ 27%
• Hyundai i30 - 2340 sales - ↓ 1.6%
• Toyota RAV4 - 2315 sales - ↑ 19.6%
• Toyota Corolla - 2230 sales - ↓ 16.0%
• Toyota Camry - 2000 sales - ↑ 54.6%
• Nissan X-Trail - 1880 sales - ↓ 3.0%
• Mazda CX-5 - 1735 sales - ↓ 13%
• Kia Cerato - 1640 sales - ↑ 21.3%
• Mitsubishi Outlander - 1525 sales - ↑ 52.6%
• Hyundai Tucson - 1445 sales - ↓ 11.0%

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