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Ford Australia finally outsold Holden... but talk about a pyrrhic victory


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After 21 years of sucking Holden dust, Ford Australia finally outsold its rival. Call it the curse of Ford Laser if you will but Ford Australia was never the same after it closed the Homebush assembly plant in Sydney.

Great news right? Well, except Ford is now 1/3 the size of Toyota. Whomp whomp...

VW's 3 brands combined also outsold Ford.

2018 Australia Passenger Vehicle Sales

1. Toyota 217,061
2. Mazda 111,280
3. Hyundai 94,187
4. Mitsubishi 84,944
5. Ford 69,081
6. Holden 60,751
7. Kia 58,815
8. Nissan 57,699
9. Volkswagen 56,620
10. Honda 51,525
11. Subaru 50,015
12. Mercedes-Benz 39,537
13. Isuzu 27,640
14. BMW 23,055
15. Audi 19,416
16. Suzuki 17,601
17. Land Rover 10,089
18. Renault 10,018
19. Lexus 8819
20. Jeep 7326
21. Volvo 6693
22. LDV (Maxus) 6064
23. Skoda 5807
24. Porsche 3909
25. Mini 3590

The top selling vehicles

1. Toyota HiLux 51,705
2. Ford Ranger 42,144
3. Toyota Corolla 35,230
4. Mazda 3 31,065
5. Hyundai i30 28,188 (including Elantra sedan = 32,031)
6. Mazda CX-5 26,173
7. Mitsubishi Triton 24,896
8. Toyota RAV4 22,165
9. Nissan X-Trail 21,192
10. Hyundai Tucson 19,261
11. Volkswagen Golf 19,076
12. Mitsubishi ASX 19,034
13. Kia Cerato 18,620
14. Toyota Prado 18,553
15. Isuzu D-Max 18,550
16. Holden Colorado 18,301
17. Nissan Navara 16,459
18. Mazda CX-3 16,293
19. Honda CR-V 16,107
20. Hyundai Accent 15,675
21. Mitsubishi Outlander 15,573
22. Toyota Camry 15,269
23. Toyota Kluger 14,743  (Highlander)
24. Kia Sportage 14,042
25. Nissan Qashqai 13,950

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Yes, it basically just Ranger holding the tent up. Let's hope there is LHD Explorer in the deck for Australia as well. But given the success of VW, I don't think there is really is no excuse why Ford couldn't at least sell as many Fiesta or Focus as VW Golf and Skoda models when Ford has a relative cost advantage having those vehicles source from Thailand instead of Europe.

Another thing that really puts things in perspective is this... Toyota sold 225,800 vehicles in Australia in 2018. Toyota sold 220,910 vehicles in the US in December 2018. So we are talking about a relatively small market that has more competitors than the US.

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6 hours ago, bzcat said:

Yes, it basically just Ranger holding the tent up. Let's hope there is LHD Explorer in the deck for Australia as well. But given the success of VW, I don't think there is really is no excuse why Ford couldn't at least sell as many Fiesta or Focus as VW Golf and Skoda models when Ford has a relative cost advantage having those vehicles source from Thailand instead of Europe.

 New Focus comes from Europe, only just starting but Fiesta is a goner and Ecosport not far behind, wanna see December's sales?

Fiesta...........................1

Focus...........................92..new models not quite filtering through yet.

Mondeo.......................81

Ecosport .....................57

Escape.......................391

Endura (Edge).............93...only just arrived.

Quote

Another thing that really puts things in perspective is this... Toyota sold 225,800 vehicles in Australia in 2018. Toyota sold 220,910 vehicles in the US in December 2018. So we are talking about a relatively small market that has more competitors than the US.

While that might be true, Toyota Australia's profit in 2017 was something like $240 million, Ford was $27 million, one  year after shedding local production write down costs. It's hard to find Ford Australia's stand alone profit because it's combined with Asia Pacific and China. However, I am reliably informed that Ford Australia is very profitable for Ford and that it's Ford Thailand's biggest customer (Thailand keeps the bulk of the profit to avoid taxes in Australia).

 

Edited by jpd80
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By comparison, here are the top 10 for December...

  1. Toyota HiLux – 3871 
  2. Ford Ranger – 3365 
  3. Toyota Corolla – 2311 
  4. Isuzu D-Max – 2184
  5. Mazda3 – 2285
  6. Mitsubishi Triton – 2000 
  7. Mazda CX-5 – 1990 
  8. Hyundai i30 – 1772 
  9. Toyota RAV4 – 1729 
  10. Nissan X-Trail – 1661 

Top 10 small cars:

  1. Toyota Corolla – 2311
  2. Mazda3 – 2285
  3. Hyundai i30 – 1772
  4. Volkswagen Golf – 1220
  5. Kia Cerato – 1206
  6. Mitsubishi Lancer – 1192 
  7. Honda Civic – 1162 
  8. Holden Astra – 1067
  9. Subaru Impreza – 577 
  10. Hyundai Elantra –  228 

More at the link.......https://performancedrive.com.au/australian-vehicle-sales-for-december-2018-vfacts-best-of-the-year-0713/

 

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11 hours ago, ausrutherford said:

RHD F-150...go for it!

If only... Ford will put Land Cruiser 70 out of business if it bothered with RHD F-150. But as I pointed out, market is too small. Ford can't justify spending money on RHD interior if it will only sell a few thousand a year. Australia and New Zealand are about the only place that would be interested in a RHD F-150.

Explorer is a big question mark... how many can Ford realistically sell in UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia?

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Just now, bzcat said:

If only... Ford will put Land Cruiser 70 out of business if it bothered with RHD F-150. But as I pointed out, market is too small. Ford can't justify spending money on RHD interior if it will only sell a few thousand a year. Australia and New Zealand are about the only place that would be interested in a RHD F-150.

Explorer is a big question mark... how many can Ford realistically sell in UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia?

Australia and New Zealand could probably do ok. It would be too big for UK and Ireland and Southeast Asia is a big ??? to me. Probably not worth the investment

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I think 2-Row Endura (AUS$49K) and 3-Row Everest ($57K) are it for our marker, heard a rumor that no RHD Explorer planned, CAP is gonna be under extreme production pressure with PIU, Explorer and Aviator for North American market. Perhaps switching Edge to CD6 later gives global a mini me Explorer?

Explorer with either 3.3 V6 hybrid or 3.0 V6 powerstroke would do the trick for Europe and RHD countries. Fuel prices in Australia are between UK and USA so our market is more open to all things American but we get all the UK 2.0 RHD intended product which doesn't quite match up with market expectations. Ford Aus is going after a more premium customer with Ranger, Mustang, Everest and now diesel Endura,

Currently, it' possible to source a RHD converted Ram 1500 V8 in Australia for around AUS$89,000 which is quite reasonable considering..

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