Australia's new car market has broken the million sales barrier. While projections for the calendar year predict a record, the '06/07 financial year saw the Australian new vehicle market top the million sales mark.

According to the FCAI, VFACTS figures for the 2006/07 financial year totalled 1,004,097 units. This is a record figure for any given 12-month period in the history of the Australian motor industry.

It's going to be one huge anti-climax if the market doesn't exceed a million for the calendar year as well.

As the final month of the financial year, June is the month when all the car companies go mad with clearance sales. This year was no exception, with the added inertia of five months of record sales, prompting a stellar performance for the month.

Passenger vehicle sales for June 2007 were 11.8 per cent (6742 units) ahead of June 2006. SUV and light commercial vehicle ('LCV') sales were also ahead compared with June '06, although the big movers were the passenger cars.

Toyota was the market leader for June, ahead of second-placed Holden by 40,404 units (a margin of 7.7 per cent market share).

The top selling car for the month was the Toyota Corolla, with 5890 units sold. Holden's VE Commodore was close behind on 5588.

The message appears to have got through to Ford dealers, with Falcon selling in excess of the 3000-unit threshold (3206), coming in third for the month, narrowly ahead of the Mazda3 on 3037.

Toyota would be pretty chuffed with combined sales of Camry and Aurion reaching 5271 units, of which the Aurion accounted for nearly half (2626).

Here's how it all happened, segment by segment...

In large cars, Commodore was over 500 units ahead of the figure for June '06 and market share was up by 3 per cent also. This is a good omen for Holden, as they were pushing VZ models out the door this time last year. Also, they're still waiting for VE wagon and LCVs to join the fray, so it was a pretty good effort considering.

Ford's best efforts notwithstanding, the Falcon sold over 1100 units less than this time last year. On the upside, the Falcon's market share for June (24.4 per cent) was slightly ahead of its market share, year-to-date ('YTD'). YTD volumes for 2007 are nearly 5500 units down on YTD, 2006.

Mitsubishi's 380 is another model with lacklustre sales. With sales of 877 units for June, the Mitsu is barely selling half the number of cars sold in June '06, although 8.1 per cent market share YTD is not as bad when you compare with 10.4 per cent YTD 2006. On the strength of the June figures, the 380 is just keeping ahead of the imported Honda Accord, on 692 units.

We already mentioned that Toyota would be happy with Aurion's performance for June. 2626 units compares very favourably with the 997 units of V6 Camry sold this time last year. Aurion's performance has been pretty consistent right throughout '07, with YTD figures of 11,274 units, versus 5027 units in '06 for the V6 Camry.

Total market share for large cars slipped from 13.3 per cent for June '06 to 12.5 per cent for June '07. The net difference in volumes for this segment for the month of June (13,164 for '07; 12,787 for '06) was actually much smaller than it should have been, given the change of fortunes for Falcon and 380.

The total small car segment saw a drop in market share, year-on-year ('YOY'), even though unit volume was up from 22,242 (June '06) to 23,645 (June '07). The same comments apply to the large car segment…overall volumes up, but market share down. The shift in market share appears to be benefiting light and medium cars.

Toyota's Corolla (more here) was over 2800 units ahead of the Mazda3 on 3037 units, and the Mazda in turn, was nearly 900 units ahead of the Mitsubishi Lancer on 2143.

There's an interesting battle developing between Holden Astra and Ford Focus. Last month, Focus outsold Astra, but this month, the tables are turned (1763 units for the Holden versus 1554 for the Ford). Astra's market share has slipped, both YTD and YOY, but the Ford's has held steady. Look out for Ford to relaunch the Focus shortly, with more competitive pricing.

Volkswagen's Golf picked up hundreds of sales in June, splitting the difference between Astra and Focus on 1619 units. Market share for the month (7.1 per cent) is a substantial improvement on 5.5 per cent YTD -- and that's a substantial improvement in itself on last year's YTD figure of 4.4 per cent.

It's often overlooked, but the light car segment is almost as vigorous as the small car market. Toyota Yaris continues to do very well with sales of 2926 units, almost a 300-unit lead over June '06.

The Toyota's nearest competitor, the Hyundai Getz, was over 400 units behind the Yaris on 2486 units. Like the Yaris, the Getz had also improved market share, YOY, but YTD market share has dropped from 18.8 per cent (2006) to 16.6 per cent (2007).

The big battle in the light car segment is between the Suzuki Swift, Kia Rio and Honda Jazz (1353, 1361 and 1392 units respectively). All three have picked up market share YOY, but the Rio gets the gong for most improved, with 10.7 per cent market share in June '07 representing a major leap from 7.2 per cent YOY or 6.6 per cent YTD.

Nothing else in the light car segment reaches four-figure sales for this month. That includes the Holden Barina, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Accent and Mazda2. Barina lost nearly 300 sales and 4.5 per cent share, YOY.

Moving up to the medium segment, it's steady as she goes. Toyota Camry continues to lead the segment and has increased its market share considerably YOY (34.7 per cent for June '07 versus 23.0 per cent for June '06). The figures probably reflect the larger size of the current 40 Series model over last year's 36 Series.

At 2645 units sold, the Camry is over 1500 units ahead of the Mazda2, the second most popular car in the segment (1089). Mazda is a handful of cars ahead of the Honda Accord Euro and market share for the Mazda6 has tumbled from 21.1 per cent for June '06 to 14.3 per cent for June '07.

Honda can't take too much solace from this, because as for the Mazda6, the Accord Euro's share slipped too, both in YOY and YTD comparisons.

Holden's Epica sold 437 units in June, fewer than in May. The YTD sales figure for the Epica (over just two and a bit months) numbered 1096 units. Compare the 437 units of Epica sold in June '07 with the 644 units of Vectra sold in June 2000 -- in a significantly smaller medium car market that year; 2343 units sold in June 2000 against 7622 units for June '07.

The Camry (currently the only medium segment car built locally), was only selling half the numbers it is this year. It's a different market now, but that should help the Epica, if anything.

In the upper large segment, the Caprice and Statesman combined provided Holden with 464 sales for the month. Statesman actually outsold Caprice in June (261 and 203 units respectively).

Both the WM models are nearly doubling sales of the WL models last year and their combined YTD sales are 2371, as opposed to 1234 units for the WL (YTD '06).

Ford's Fairlane, on 149 units for June, is within striking distance of the Chrysler 300C on 162, but not a single LTD was sold last month. Some good news for the Fairlane is that market share YTD is down, compared with last year, but the actual volume of units sold has risen from 593 to 870 YTD.

This reflects the fact that the Holdens have single-handedly increased the total size of the segment. Competitors' market share has shrunk relatively, even though their number of sales may have actually increased. This is true of the 300C as well as the Fairlane. The segment is worth 4210 units YTD, but was only 2781 units last year, YTD.

Toyota's Tarago (539 units) was pipped in the people mover segment by the narrowest of margins. The culprit was the Kia Carnival on 548 units. Total sales of people movers, YTD, have risen by nearly a thousand units -- and over 500 of those were sold during June alone.

Honda Odyssey sold 382 units for the month -- a marked jump from the 161 units sold in June 2006.

Proving that people resolutely equate convertibles with sports cars, the Holden Astra convertible (128 units) and the Saab 9-3 (114) topped the sports segment. The Astra has enjoyed a resurgence over the last twelve months, with YTD market share improving from 10.9 per cent (2006) to 14.6 per cent (2007).

Nothing else in the sports segment made it into triple figures, although Mazda's MX-5 nearly did it, on 99 units for the month. The MX-5's performance in isolation proves that people don't buy soft-tops in winter. June's market share (11.0 per cent) doesn't compare with the YTD share of 13.2 per cent.

Unfortunately for that argument, the Saab is the exception that proves the rule. The 9-3 convertible actually picked up 5.5 per cent extra market share for the month (12.7 per cent for the month, 7.2 per cent YTD).

In compact SUVs, the top seller was Toyota's RAV4 (1343 units), followed by the Subaru Forester, exactly 200 units less, on 1143 units. Although total sales for the segment rose in volumes, the market share dipped slightly, both YOY and YTD. All four of the top sellers -- RAV4, Forester, Nissan X-Trail and Honda CR-V -- watched their market share for the month slide, relative to the respective YTD figures.

Would we be out of line suggesting that reduced market share for the competitors might be compensated by the 615 units of Mazda CX-7 sold during the month?

Mitsubishi's new Outlander (851 units for the month) is also doing well. Unlike the CX-7, which doesn't replace a superseded model, the Outlander is a new generation of an existing car. Its performance in June 2007 contrasts strongly with the previous model's performance of 326 units in June '06.

Ford's Territory continues to sell strongly in the medium SUV segment. With over 2000 units sold for the month (2026), it's the best selling SUV in any segment.

Its market share for the month is better than the YTD figure, but a little down, compared with YTD for 2006.

The Toyota Prado placed second in the segment with a figure of 1339 units. This figure and the percentage of market share was down, in YOY and YTD comparisons. Prado's figures are showing a gentle but longer term decline which Toyota will need to address.

The Captiva is doing pretty good business for Holden, with sales of 1066 units for the month. 15.1 per cent market share for June is slightly ahead of the YTD figure of 14.7 per cent.

Although the Toyota LandCruiser won the large SUV segment for the month, with sales of 635 units and market share of 53.0 per cent, Nissan's Patrol gained over 10 per cent market share, relative to the YTD figure (44.2 and 33.8 per cent respectively).

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