Australia April 2015: Mazda CX-3 only 3 units off Top 10

As expected, the Mazda CX-3 is an instant hit in Australia.

* See the Top 15 best-selling models and Top 48 All-brands by clicking on the title *

Each month Australian car buyers fall a little more in love with SUVs, solely responsible for the market year-on-year gain in April. Overall sales are up 1% to 81,656 registrations this month and up 3.5% to 350.250 year-to-date. SUV sales account 36.3% of the Australian market vs. 42.9% for traditional passenger cars, with every SUV segment gaining at least 11% year-on-year and the small SUV segment taking off at +31%. Reversely, passenger cars fall 10.3% with upper large (-30%), micro (-27%), large (-17%) and small cars (-14%) faring the worst. We are witnessing a complete turnaround in the format preference of Australian consumers.

The Golf helps Volkswagen hit its highest Australian ranking in potentially 40 years…

Brand-wise, Toyota once again sells more than the next two marques combined at 15.299 (+2%), with Mazda getting a 15% boost to 8.068 and Hyundai (-5%) keeping Holden (-12%) off the podium for the third consecutive month. Hyundai is now only 1.030 sales below Holden year-to-date. Ford (-20%) is still in great difficulty but is back up to the 5th place it held over FY2014, followed by Volkswagen (+14%) hitting its best Australian monthly ranking (#6) in potentially 40 years – the German manufacturer last ranked that high annually in 1967, peaking at #3 overall from 1958 to 1961, during the heyday of the Beetle, then produced locally. Its Golf is up 26% year-on-year to #7 while the Polo is up 85%, the Jetta up 28% and the Amarok up 13%. Finally, notice Mercedes (+17%) edging past Honda (+9%) to claim a spot in the Top 10.

Baby SUVs are all the rage in Australia.

The Toyota Corolla takes a clear advantage over its pursuants in April despite sales down 2% on a year ago (3.238), distancing the Toyota Hilux (2.789) and Mazda3 (2.365). The Corolla leads the race for the title of 2015 best-seller with 14.910 units after 4 months vs. 13.424 for its archenemy the Mazda3, which seems to have been impacted full frontal by the astonishing success of the Mazda CX-3, shooting up directly to #11 for its 2nd month in market with a fantastic 1,396 sales and 1.7% share, only… 3 units off a historical Top 10 ranking. This is the best ranking the CX-3 has achieved in the world so far, being only at #22 at home in Japan in March. The CX-3 already ranks third SUV overall below fellow stablemate the CX-5 – not impacted at all at +21% and 1,868 units – and the Toyota RAV4 at 1,399 sales.

Previous post: Australia 1st Quarter 2015: Mazda2 soars to segment lead

Previous month: Australia March 2015: SUV sales push market up 8%

One year ago: Australia April 2014: Toyota Prado, RAV4 hit all-time high rankings

Full April 2015 Top 15 models and Top 48 All-brands below.