Powered by Strong Falcon Performance, Ford Australia Improves Year over Year Sales

[Donut King]

Powered by Strong Falcon Performance, Ford Australia Improves Year over Year Sales

August VFACTS figures show Ford Australia's sales volume increased by 4.4% over the same month last year. Driven by a 13.7% increase compared with the same month last year, Falcon claimed 41% of the large car segment, was Australia's best selling car in August and gave the company its best Falcon sales result since June 2004.

"Achieving leadership of the large car segment in August is a great accomplishment for the company and our dealers," said Ford Australia President Tom Gorman.

"This strong sales result comes at an important time for us, as we start run out of the award winning BA and prepare ourselves for the eagerly anticipated October launch of the new BF Falcon.

"The large car market remains extremely important and continues to attract a wide variety of Australian consumers. Competition for share of this segment is only going to heat up over the coming months."

Falcon Ute also had a great sales month, achieving its best ever August sales with 1823 utes sold. Combined with total Courier sales of 538 vehicles, 179 F-Series, and 249 Transit Vans, Ford Australia's light truck line achieved its best ever August sales result with 2868 vehicles sold.

"Sales in other market segments were also positive," said Mr Gorman.

"Fiesta had a solid month with 385 vehicles sold and the new Focus reached 922 sales. Our dealers are reporting strong interest in the new Focus and we continue to work closely with the Ford team in South Africa to free up additional capacity. Demand for the new Focus is very strong - if we can get them, we can sell them.

"Territory retained the leadership of the medium SUV segment it has held since going on sale in June 2004. Sales of 1735 increased over the same period last year.

"Activity will increase in the remaining months of the year. The launch of the new BF Falcon and SY Territory in October will stimulate interest in these two important segments, and also provide our customers with even further performance, refinement and fuel economy advantages."

[MADDER]

Falcon No. 1 you bloody ripper!

And all the rest are looking up too!! Roll on October!!

[loxxr6]

"The large car market remains extremely important and continues to attract a wide variety of Australian consumers. Competition for share of this segment is only going to heat up over the coming months."

Hmm. Seems the motoring press seem to disagree with this (the large car market thriving that is). Drive had an article the other day saying how large car sales were declining ??? With petrol prices as they are you would think that would be the case ???

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by loxxr6

Hmm. Seems the motoring press seem to disagree with this (the large car market thriving that is). Drive had an article the other day saying how large car sales were declining ??? With petrol prices as they are you would think that would be the case ???

Judging by the recent slant in articles id say the motoring press seem infatuated with 4 cyl jap buzz boxes , did i mention "mid corner speed"?! :

[MADDER]

Originally Posted by loxxr6

Hmm. Seems the motoring press seem to disagree with this (the large car market thriving that is). Drive had an article the other day saying how large car sales were declining ??? With petrol prices as they are you would think that would be the case ???

This seems to be a cyclical issue that rears its head every decade or two. That same Drive article made spurious comments to the effect that equivalent prestige brands with better features could be had for less money than Commodores or Falcons. I would like them to show me where this is the case. Clearly there is a decline but when the same two vehicles are still regularly the top two sellers bar glitches they are still worth taking seriously. Also what happens when the dollar drops again?

I have to concede that I have test driven smaller vehicles both within and outside of the blue oval but to jump back in the Falcon is a great relief. I would suggest many that have swung to smaller vehicles may very well swing back down the track. What's more, the Falcon shares many elements with the very successful Territory which is even bigger and yet came out of nowhere to be a regular fixture on the top 10 sellers list.

I think one of the biggest problems the Falcon and Commodore face is the issue of brand snobbery that increasingly seems to afflict our great nation. That said, I think the quality range of vehicles across the Ford stable will put it in good stead to establish a very favourable local brand image into the future.

[SpoolMan]

Good news for Ford, looks like the direction Ford has taken keeps on bringing home good results...

[GTP 320]

Great news to hear Falcon number one again.
Cheers John

[Aussie Falcon]

So how many Falcons were actually sold??

[SpoolMan]

pinched this bit out of some elses thread.
Ford's BF improvements close the gap on the FPV range which set new records in July. FPV sold 87 Typhoons against 55 GTs and 37 GT-Ps and that was without an auto option for the Typhoon. Ford's new six speed auto will be offered on all FPV BF models which should share similar power increases to the Falcon range across the board. FPV won't be announcing its big changes until the Sydney Motor Show.

[JPFS1]

Originally Posted by Aussie Falcon

So how many Falcons were actually sold??

just under 5,900 i believe.

[MeestaNob!]

Good result, but they MUST start advertising the Fiesta.

385 people probably bought it by accident, seeing it out of the corner of their eye while they investigate buying a second hand Laser or Festiva.

[MrSparkle]

Interesting reading this, and puts a different spin on things than the article in the first post in this thread. Ford would want to be re-examining their product lineup and targeting accordingly, not to mention their advertising (term used loosely in Fords case, since there really is none to speak of).

http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,1...33-462,00.html

RISING petrol prices are hitting sales of Australian-made cars, with buyers shunning locally-made large cars in favour of smaller models.

Small-car sales have jumped 19.5 per cent this year, while large-car sales have fallen by 10 per cent.
"The trend would appear to be driven by the ongoing increase in the price of petrol," said David Gelb, automotive partner at KPMG.

The figures, from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, show sales of Holden Commodores down 3400 so far this year compared with the same period last year.

This comes a week after Holden announced it is cutting 1400 jobs from its Elizabeth plant, near Adelaide, where it builds Commodores.

But the biggest big-car loser is the Ford Falcon, with about 7000 fewer sold this year to date than for the same period last year. This is followed by the Commodore, then the V6 Toyota Camry, with 1400 fewer sales. Mitsubishi Magna sales are slightly ahead of last year's figure as the model is being discounted ahead of its replacement next month by the Mitsubishi 380.

But petrol prices have not hit overall sales. A record 86,000 vehicles were sold last month, a rise of almost 7000 on the previous August, and 8000 more than in July.
Small-car sales for the year to date are almost 23,000 ahead of last year's corresponding figure, but almost 12,000 fewer large cars have been sold in the year to date than in the same period last year. Large-car sales in August were 14,210, almost 1000 down on August last year.

The 18,674 imported small cars sold in August represent one in three passenger car sales, or one vehicle in five, when utes, vans, buses and trucks are counted.

FCAI chief executive Peter Sturrock said the vehicle market had defied predictions that house prices and petrol costs would dampen demand.

"Fuel prices are not discouraging people from buying motor vehicles, although they do seem to be influencing the type of vehicles being bought," Mr Sturrock said.

The local car industry, which is dominated by large-car production, would have to respond if the trend towards small cars continued, Mr Gelb said. Additional reporting by AAP

[loxxr6]

Mr Sparkle: I believe Drive's article was along the same lines as what you have posted up.

[JR.]

August Sales figures:

Taken from News.com.au HERE


Falcon - 5,826
Commodore - 5,618.
Corolla - 4783
Astra - 3290
Camry - 2982
Mazda3 - 2074
Falcon Ute - 1823
Holden Ute - 1788
Territory - 1735
Hi-Lux 4X4 - 1593

Although Falcon sales are down 7000 units, the article fails to mention Territory sales which should be around 14000 to date.

[russellw]

The usual graphical analysis of the August figures is available HERE

Cheers
Russ