Holden Commodore regains sales lead in July

Australia’s favourite  car games swaps top spot with the Mazda3 yet again
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The Holden Commodore has regained its title as Australia’s top selling car after narrowly outselling the Mazda3 in July.

In what is shaping up as the ding-dong battle of the year, the two cars have now swapped top-seller status four times in seven months. The pair was separated by just 180 sales year-to-date in the Mazda’s favour at the halfway mark of the year (21,212 versus 21,032). But, according to preliminary data obtained by motoring.com.au, Holden sold 3500 Commodores compared to 3200 Mazda3s in July, giving the Holden a slim margin of about 120 sales year-to-date.

Previously, the Mazda3 had overtaken the Holden Commodore as Australia’s top-selling car in June – and regained the lead in the year-to-date tally.

Mazda had an all-time record month for its small car in June and it was only the second time it has been the top-selling car in an individual month (the first was in January 2009). Going into June the Mazda3 and Commodore were separated by just 223 sales – then by 180 sales at the end of June. The gap is now as low as about 120 sales at the end of July.

Interestingly, the Mazda3 was the top-selling car from January to April 2011 when all four months were combined – but it did not lead in any individual month as it was beaten by the Toyota Corolla in January and the Holden Commodore in February, March and April. The Commodore regained the monthly and year-to-date lead in May but was overtaken by the Mazda3 on both counts in June.

Mazda had a boom month in June because it was filling a backlog of orders that were delayed by interruptions to production following the Japanese earthquakes in March. Since filling the back orders, the Mazda3 appears to have returned to its normal sales rate in July (approximately 3200 sales for the month).