Commodore bounces back

As Holden's manufacturing future remains under a cloud the Commodore has had its best monthly sales performance in two years. 

Preliminary figures show Holden delivered more than 3300 new Commodores in October, an increase of 35 per cent compared with the same month last year.

"It just goes to show that there are a lot of Australians out there who want an Australian-made car," said Holden's sales and marketing executive director, Philip Brook. "It's a great result considering it is a soft market."

Industry analysts believe new-car sales dipped by 2 per cent for the second month in a row, but official figures are not released until next week.

But it was a somewhat shallow victory for what was Australia's favourite car for 15 years in a row, ranking third behind two Japanese imports, the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 small cars.

"The market has changed but the results of the VF (Commodore) prove we're building cars that people want," said Mr Brook.

Having clocked up its fifth monthly win this year and the second in a row, the Toyota Corolla is on track to become Australia’s top-selling car for the first time ever.

In other upsets, South Korean car maker Hyundai pushed Mazda off the podium for third place for the third time this year. And Hyundai's sister brand Kia pushed Honda outside the top 10 for the second month in a row.

In a stark example of the impact of the imported competition, the Volkswagen Golf outsold the locally made Holden Cruze small car for the second month in a row.

Top 10 cars October 2013
Toyota Corolla 3860
Mazda3 3610
Holden Commodore 3310
Toyota HiLux 3170
Hyundai i30 2380
Toyota Camry 2250
Ford Ranger 2025
Volkswagen Golf 1965
Holden Cruze 1925
Nissan Navara 1920

Top 10 brands October 2013
Toyota 18,130 -- down 2 per cent
Holden 10,530 -- up 3 per cent
Hyundai 8130 -- up 7 per cent
Mazda 7965 -- up 3 per cent
Ford 7485 -- down 10 per cent
Nissan 5295 -- down 20 per cent
Mitsubishi 5065 -- down 5 per cent
Volkswagen 4875 -- down 12 per cent
Subaru 2860 -- down 10 per cent
Kia 2530 -- down 15 per cent

Preliminary results. Official VFACTS data due Monday 4 November, 2013.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling