2 — Northern Territory News, CARSguide, Saturday, January 9, 2010

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NO 2: The Corolla was the best-selling small car NO 1: The Commodore was Australia’s favourite car for 2009

CAR SALES DEFY

GLOOM OF 2009By PAUL GOVER

DOLLAR deals and Canberracash kept Australians descend-

ing on new-car showrooms in nearrecord numbers through 2009.

Hyundai proved the right price wasvital as it lifted its overall sales bynearly 40 per cent, and put two carsinto the top 10 sellers, in a year whenoverall car sales dropped by 7.4 percent against the 2008 result.

Last year’s total of 937,328 alsoincluded about 80,000 vehicles that

were part of Federal Government’s 50

per cent investment allowance, de-

vised as a stimulus package to

combat the local effects of the global

financial crisis.

A late sales surge saw a record

result for December, up nearly 16 per

cent on December 2008, and more

than 2000 sales better than the

previous best result in December

2007.

On a national basis, the Northern

Territory suffered most in the 2009

downturn with a 15.1 per cent fall in

sales, while Western Australia had a

14 per cent fall.

Victoria was down 7.5 per cent,

Queensland dropped 7.2 per cent,

Tasmania 6 per cent, New South

Wales 5.4 per cent, South Australia

5.2 per cent and the ACT 2.8 per

cent.

Toyota was Australia’s favourite

brand for the seventh-straight year in

2009. But the full-sized Holden

Commodore continued its long runas Australia’s number-onecar.

Last year also was theyear when a new class ofcar — tiny city runaboutspriced at less than $15,000— began to make an impacthere.

The Suzuki Alto led acharge which will now growto include the first Chinese-made imports this year.

The official VFacts salestotals for last year pointclearly to the popularity ofsmall cars, with the ToyotaCorolla second overall andthe Mazda3 in fourth place.

Holden’s Adelaide-builtCommodore has beenAustralia’s top-selling carsince 1996.

TOP 10 CARS 2009

1 Holden Commodore . . . . . . 44,387

2 Toyota Corolla . . . . . . . . 39,013

3 Toyota Hilux . . . . . . . . 38,457

4 Mazda3 . . . . . . . . . . 35,298

5 Ford Falcon . . . . . . . . . . 31,023

6 Hyundai i30 . . . . . . . . . . 21,414

7 Mitsubishi Lancer . . . . . . 21,362

8 Toyota Camry . . . . . . . . 20,846

9 Hyundai Getz . . . . . . . . 19,643

10 Toyota Yaris . . . . . . . . 19,447

TOP 10 BRANDS

2009 compared to 2008 (+/- %)

1 Toyota 200,991 . . . . -15.9%

2 Holden 19,568 . . . . . . -8.3

3 Ford 96,501 . . . . . . -7.8

4 Mazda 77,739 . . . . . . -2.6

5 Hyundai 63,207 . . . . +39.2

6 Mitsubishi 56,998 . . . . . . -6.1

7 Nissan 52,901 . . . . -10.7

8 Honda 41,443 . . . . . . -21.2

9 Subaru 36,506 . . . . . . -5.2

10 Volkswagen 30,087 . . . . . . +0.7

LandRovertop ofclassTHE new Land Rover Dis-covery 4 has beencrowned 4x4 of the Year,by 4x4 Australia Magazine

its third major award inAustralia since its arrivallate 2009.

Pitted head to head withthe new Toyota Prado, theDiscovery 4 came out infront.

Land Rover has nowwon the 4x4 of the Yearaward four of the past sixyears.

The Discovery 4 provedthe most popular amongthe individual judges, withmost awarding it thehighest number of votes.

Land Rover AustraliaMarketing and PR Man-ager Kevin Goult said:‘‘Since 2005 the Discovery3 has been at the corner-stone of Land Rover’s suc-cess in Australia.

‘‘It was regarded as the‘world’s most awarded4WD’, receiving more than100 awards across 17countries globally, and theDiscovery 4 is showingevery sign that it will con-tinue the legacy of itspredecessor.’’

This award comes justweeks after the Discovery 4was crowned Australia’sBest Cars, Best All Terrain4WD for 2009 and the2009 Drive Car of the Year— Best 4WD.

o Autocar.co.uk readershave chosen the RangeRover Vogue as their Car ofthe Decade.

Autocar’s resident carexperts nominated andchampioned 17 great carslaunched during the past10 years for readers tochoose from.

Of more than 7500votes, 18 per cent — nearlya fifth — were for the RangeRover Vogue.

The Range Rover sawoff a strong showing fromthe MkII Lotus Elise, whichtook second place with12.5 per cent of the vote.

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