Australia January 2014: Mazda3 up to highest market share ever

Thanks to the new model, the Mazda3 hits its highest ever market share in Australia this month.

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 10 models and Top 47 All-brands! *

After beating another all-time record over the Full Year 2013, new car sales in Australia are a little shy in this start of 2014: down 4% on a record January 2013 to 82,285 registrations. Toyota unsurprisingly keeps the brands top spot but sees its market share slide to 16.6% vs. 18.9% over the Full Year 2013. Mazda (+6%) passes Holden (+1%) to rank #2 with an outstanding 11.4% share, Hyundai (+5%) remains above Ford (-12%) while Volkswagen (+6%) is now threatening Nissan (-41%) and Mitsubishi (-7%). Mercedes is up a splendid 15% to #11, Jeep continues to amaze at +22% and #12 and Audi lodges its all-time record monthly volume in Australia at 1,685 sales, up 25% year-on-year.

The new Toyota Corolla sedan will be imported from Thailand from February onwards.

In the models ranking, a combination of heavily discounted previous generations and early deliveries of the new model propel the Mazda3 up 36% year-on-year to a huge 4,561 sales and 5.5% share, its 2nd best-ever monthly volume in the country below the 4,649 units it sold in December 2012, and an all-time record market share, beating the 5.3% it reached in January 2012… As a reminder, the Mazda3 dominated Australian sales in 2011 and 2012 before being passed by the Toyota Corolla last year. This month the Corolla is left knocked out almost 2 percentage points below the Mazda3 at #2 with 2,941 units and 3.6%, however the launch of the new gen Corolla sedan this month should make things very interesting indeed this year…

The Mazda CX-5 reaches an all-time high 7th place in Australia this month.

Further down the ranking, notice the Hyundai i30 up 24% year-on-year to #4, the Holden Commodore up 43% to #5, the Ford Focus reaching its 2nd best-ever ranking in the country at #6 below the #5 it hit exactly one year ago in January 2013, the VW Golf up a whopping 84% year-on-year to #9 and the Jeep Grand Cherokee up to a best-ever #14 (ranking TBC). Finally, the Mazda CX-5 is up 5 spots on December to reach an all-time high 7th place this month with 1,853 sales and a record 2.3% share, its previous bests being #8 in May and August last year and 2.1% last August.

Previous post: Australia Full Year 2013 by State: Toyota Hilux tops 3 states

Full Year 2013 report: Australia Full Year 2013: Toyota Corolla finally tops record market

Previous month: Australia December 2013: Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Triton up

One year ago: Australia January 2013: Nissan Navara and Ford Focus break records

Full January 2014 Top 10 models and Top 47 All-brands Ranking Tables below.