Boy, Do I Feel Stupid!

Toyota was the last car manufacturer to pull out of the Australian market. It did so because the scale of operation was insufficient as a sole manufacturer in the country. Its hand was forced by the decisions of two other car makers. How did Toyota Toyota president and CEO Max Yasuda feel about the closure? To quote Australia's Drive:

As Yasuda explains, the decision to close the local operation

Australian Made Sales Ford/Holden : 2000-18

Some early Holden models



Australians were not happy to lose their car manufacturing. It had traditionally been based around large cars and protected by import duty. When the duty was being phased out some smaller producers went, leaving GM Holden, Ford and Toyota left. GM did some exporting, Ford very little and Toyota a lot. 



In May, 2013 Ford announced it was ending its production. By

Australia Premium Sales Comparison : 2016-18

Sales of premium cars have been in steady decline recently, 113,000 then 104,500 and now 97,000. There isn't much movement on rankings but some are doing better than others. Mercedes numbers are a little iffy, trying to separate them from CVs but I think it's about right. Land Rover had a poor 2018 as did Porsche. Tesla figures could be anywhere but one source had these numbers.

Australia / Canada JLR Comparison : 2010-16

For this comparison, I had to estimate sales in Australia by subtracting commercial vehicles and I'm satisfied with the result. Just over a million sales were achieved as an average for the last seven years, compared to the Canadian total of one and three quarter million.

Despite that, JLR is stronger in Australia and it's down to Land Rover. Australians prefer SUVs so hardly surprising.

Australia Premium Comparison : 2010-16

Premium cars are proving popular in many nations. They are often outselling cheaper mainstream brand while at the same time making more profit. More recently the most aggressive attack on this segment have been the BAM marques, BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz. However other car makers are striking back and the competition is heating up. So a look at sales in this decade would be interesting.

First

Mature Market Vehicle Production : Australia

A fair dinkum ute, for anyone who hasn't seen one


Figures vary with sources so what is exact data is unknown. However, what I have is close and gives an accurate picture. It shows how the industry has gone down. The volumes were good by 1960 standards but didn't kick on. It was based around large cars which were suited to a big country. Some factors then went against it.

First, exports were

Australia / NZ Sales By Brand Comparison: 2011

Australia and New Zealand (ANZACs) are very close nations, like Canada and the USA. Accents and culture also have a strong similarity. How about car buying preferences by brand?

To start, Australia has 92.3% of sales and NZ 7.7%. The figure after the brand name below is the percentage the brand achieves over or under the average, NZ being the reference country. For example Suzuki makes 16.9% of