The first thing that is different from the UK is that most
Aussies have this dream of either driving round Australia or going up north
into the tropics in the winter. All this involves driving on dirt roads in the
outback in a 4x4.
So, there
is a big market for 4x4s and also for pick-up trucks which are used by trades
people for work and family use - so there are four-door pick-up trucks. This
means that a huge sector of the market is for 4x4s and pick-ups, many of which
are 4x4s.
Toyota
realises that this is just a dream and that actually, people drive their 4x4s
to go shopping and visit friends in the suburbs, and markets a whole range of
4x4s. Others do as well, but don't have such big ranges as Toyota.
Now for
the car market. Last year it amounted to 1.136m, a record, by 2%. Toyota was
the top seller with 214,000 units, more than 100,000 more than Holden, which
now sells cars built in Korea mostly, except for the Commodore which will not
longer be built in Australia after another year or so. Ford has already stopped
making the Falcon here. Mazda came third, just ahead of Hyundai with 103,000
sales. Ford is a dismal 5th with 87,000 sales.
Best
seller, for the first time was the Corolla, overtaking the Mazda 3 by about
1,400 units - 43,500 to 42,080. Next came the Toyota Hilux (39,000) and the
Hyundai i30 (30,0580) and then the Holden Commodore at only 27,000. It used to
be the best seller until Toyota came along. Incidentally, while sales were up
overall, here in WA they fell 2% over 2012 to 125,000.
Toyota
still builds cars here and there is a lot of speculation as to how long it will
continue, but my guess is that they will hang in there.
John Hartley, Perth
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