Holden out in front

Six months into the year and Holden is leading the new-vehicle sales race from Ford and Toyota.

At the end of June, according to Land Transport Safety Authority figures, Holden had sold 5567 cars and commercials for 16.2 per cent of the market, followed by Ford with 5499 (16) and Toyota with 5492 (16).

Nissan was third with 3436 sales for a 10 per cent share, followed by Mitsubishi with 2536 (7.4), Honda 1867 (5.4), Mazda 1729 (5), Hyundai 1310 (3.8), Suzuki 825 (2.4), Volkswagen 714 (2.1), Subaru 617 (1.8), BMW 608 (1.8), Mercedes-Benz 534 (1.6), Peugeot 513 (1.5), Daihatsu 405 (1.2), Audi 366 (1.1), Rover 359 (1), Daewoo 187 (0.5), Chrysler 181 (0.5), Kia 57 (0.2).

The remaining 1559 sales (4.5 per cent) came from carmakers such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Renault, Jaguar, Porsche and so on.

In June, Holden, Toyota and Ford sales accounted for 54.2 per cent of all new vehicles.

Holden had 1302 sales (18.5), Toyota 1268 (18.1) and Ford 1233 (17.6). In fourth place was Nissan with 536 (7.6), followed by Mitsubishi with 525 (7.5), Honda 412 (5.9) and Mazda 391 (5.6).

June sales were up nearly 20 per cent on May, which in turn was 23 per cent up on April. But new-vehicle sales for the first six months of this year were down 5.7 per cent on the first half of last year.

Sales of 64,150 used imports at the end of June were down 1.1 per cent on the same period last year.