Mazda3 back in the lead as Australia’s top-seller

Record month for Mazda pushes Holden Commodore to second place
discount new cars Get the best price on a new Mazda Mazda’s 3 small car overtook the Holden Commodore as Australia’s top-selling car in June – and has regained the lead in the year-to-date tally.

Preliminary VFACTs registration figures show that about 4200 Mazda3 small cars were sold in June compared to Holden’s tally of about 3850 Commodores. This is believed to be an all-time record month for the Mazda3 and only the second time it has been the top-selling car in an individual month. The first was in January 2009.

Going into June the 3 and Commodore were separated by just 223 sales  year to date. Now that margin is believed to have flipped to around 160 sales in the Mazda’s favour.

Interestingly, the Mazda3 was the top-selling car from January to April 2011 when all four months were combined – but it did not lead in any individual month as it was beaten by the Toyota Corolla in January and the Holden Commodore in February, March, and April.

The Commodore regained the monthly and year-to-date lead in May but, according to the preliminary data, was overtaken by the Mazda3 on both counts in June.

Mazda had a boom month because it is filling a backlog of orders that were delayed by the interruptions to production following the Japanese earthquakes in March.

Mazda sales are up 45 per cent from May to June (5900 sales compared to an all-time record of 8600-plus sales) and up 7 per cent when compared with June last year – at the time Mazda’s second-best month on record and only the second time it had eclipsed 8000 sales.

Meanwhile, Holden’s Cruze mounted a strong challenge to the Mazda3. It posted what is believed to be its best month on record, with almost 3400 sales.

It is worth noting that the Cruze result includes sales of the sedan only whereas the Mazda3 figure includes sedan and hatch. The Cruze hatch is due to go into local production later this year.

The official June 2011 sales figures compiled by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) are expected to be released by the middle of this week.