Hyundai beats Holden again in May

It's official: we're falling out of love with Holden and buying more Hyundais instead.

Joshua Dowling

National Motoring Editor

CarsGuide

2 Jun 2016 • 3 min read

New car sales are continuing at record pace, but there are big changes in the types of cars we are buying.

Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Korean cars.

In the clearest sign yet of our changing tastes, Hyundai has beaten Holden every month so far this year in a first for the Korean brand.

Driven by a rock bottom $19,990 drive-away price -- about $7500 off the RRP -- the Hyundai i30 hatchback was Australia's top selling car for a record third month in a row for the first time ever, once again defeating the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3.

While Toyota still comfortably leads the car market overall -- this year will be its 14th in a row -- Mazda and Hyundai made big gains while Holden fell further behind.

Holden was one of only two car companies to post a significant drop in sales in May; the other was Volkswagen, which is still dealing with the "dieselgate" emissions controversy.

The only glimmer of hope for Holden was that it managed to regain the lead over Ford, which in April beat its former foe for the first time in 17 years.

Ford was still popping champagne corks in May, however, having posted its seventh month in a row of growth after 11 straight years of decline.

Ford has become less reliant on locally-made vehicles as it prepares to close its Broadmeadows car assembly line and Geelong engine and stamping plant this October.

But Holden is still going through a sales slide as it transitions to becoming solely an importer of vehicles.

Worryingly for Holden, locally-made cars still represented almost half (48 per cent) of its sales in May.

Driven by low interest rates and sharp pricing, the car market is tracking at record pace so far in 2016, and shows no signs of slowing.

When the Cruze small car and Commodore sedan are eventually replaced by imports -- after the Elizabeth production line closes in late 2017 -- sales are expected to take another hit as the prices of those models will rise.

The other big news in May, according to reliable preliminary data ahead of official sales results announced this Friday, was our continued appetite for utes.

The Toyota HiLux ranked second in sales overall last month, ahead of the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 small cars.

But there were four utes inside the Top 10 -- Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton and Nissan Navara -- as the deals became sharper in the lead-up to June, the biggest month for workhorse vehicles.

June is expected to be the biggest month of new-car sales on record.

Driven by low interest rates and sharp pricing, the car market is tracking at record pace so far in 2016, and shows no signs of slowing.

Top 10 cars in May

Hyundai i30 -- 3770

Toyota HiLux -- 3675

Toyota Corolla -- 3330

Mazda3 -- 3240

Ford Ranger -- 3115

Holden Commodore -- 2255

Mazda CX-5 -- 2115

Mitsubishi Triton -- 2010

Volkswagen Golf -- 1755