Ironic, considering that in Oz, Mazda is doing pretty well.
Imports put local car makers into a skid
Andrew Heasle
<cite>September 6, 2011</cite>
Top seller ... the Mazda 3.
MOTORISTS are turning their backs on locally made cars, with the latest sales figures showing more than eight out of every 10 vehicles sold last month were made overseas.
Official new car sales figures show of the 88,082 vehicles sold in August, 73,891 were imported from Asia, Europe and the Americas, representing an 84 per cent share of the market.
Highlighting the precarious state of local manufacturing, only 14,191 of the vehicles sold in August, or 16 per cent, were made in Australia.
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Of them, Holden sold 7853 (Commodore and the new Cruze four-cylinder), Ford sold 3883 (Falcon and Territory wagon) and Toyota sold just 2455 locally made vehicles (Camry and Aurion).
In an industry where every fraction of market share is a hard won gain, it's a significant turnaround from 2005, for example, when locally made cars represented more than one in four vehicles sold, industry VFACTS figures show.
Now local cars are on the slide: Ford has sold 9811 fewer locally made cars so far this year, Toyota 5610 fewer. Only Holden is making headway, having added the Cruze to its portfolio.
Car brands that consist of entirely imported model ranges are enjoying stellar growth - Japan's Mazda set an all-time August sales record of 9138 cars (up 41 per cent on the same time last year), including selling 4234 Mazda3s - displacing Holden's Commodore as the top-selling car last month.
Korea's Hyundai shifted 7417 cars (up 13.1 per cent), Japan's Nissan sold 5587 vehicles (up 18 per cent) and Mitsubishi 4851 vehicles (up 7.8 per cent).
The Japanese figures are all the more remarkable given the country is still recovering from March's devastating earthquake and tsunami disasters.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries defended the performance of local manufacturers, characterising Australia's new car market as one of the most competitive in the world.
''There are over 60 brands available to consumers, which is double the brands available in the much bigger US market and about the same number of brands available in Europe, where they sell 10 million cars a year, compared to our one million,'' the chamber's acting chief executive, Steve Payne, said.
''It's a continuing challenge for the local manufacturer to keep competitive.
''The high Australian dollar is a double whammy, because it makes imported vehicles more attractive and a large number of Australian vehicles are exported, which makes it harder for Australian manufacturers to win those export markets when the Australian dollar is so high.''
Most of all, local manufacturers need stable, long-term industry policies that car company head office's can base investment decisions on, not a government that ''chops and changes'' policies, Mr Payne said.
He said it was an industry worth saving as the automotive sector employs 60,000 directly, among manufacturers and suppliers, and at least another 250,000 indirectly.
Despite their problems, Toyota, Holden and Ford finished in the top three spots in accrued sales by brand so far this year, boosted by imported models.
