28 May 2017

Toyota UK Sales 1965-79 (by model)

The 1965 Corona

Toyota arrived in the UK late 1965 with the Corona model, sporting 'luxuries' rare on a family car at the time. Features such as two-speed wipers and a heater were quite a novelty on a mainstream car. The Corona was soon followed by the Corolla to spearhead the sales push into Britain.

From 1965 to 1968, 1,961 cars had been sold. In 1969 1,211 cars found homes, 1970 1,327 and 1971 3,982. Things kicked off in 1972 as imports started to make inroads into the local market. The Corolla was the best selling model, with the Starlet not far behind.

Mod/Yr 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
Corolla 5,253 7,666 7,046 8,310 9,657 11,850 10,315 9,116
Starlet - - 582 5,172 5,330 4,387 4,137 7,910
Carina*
5,008 3,549 3,272 3,070 3,151 4,348 6,076
Celica
3,632 2,751 2,974 3,423 2,985 5,131 5,294
Cressida - - - - - 1,293 3,897 3,315
Crown
1,821 838 462 458 449 490 502
Others 8,273 396 48 80 156 42 16 7
Total 13,526 18,523 14,814 20,270 22,094 24,157 28,334 32,220
*Carina and Corona models combined

Data source: Mainly Toyota UK.
For the 1980-89 period, please click here.

The 1970 Celica 

22 May 2017

GM India/South Africa : A Disappointment

This bakkie wasn't enough to save Chevrolet South Africa

GM has decided to stop selling cars in India but keep on making them there. I find that hard to fathom. By making cars there, surely that avoids import duty and allows the cars to be sold profitably. Despite being in the market over 20 years, it still had less that 1% market share. For that reason the plug has been pulled.

At the same time, the decision has been made to leave South Africa, both in manufacturing and sales. The plant will be taken over by Isuzu, who currently share it. This means Chevrolet will leave the RSA after over 90 years there. As for the Opel brand, it will be up to PSA to take that over if they wish.

Sales of Chev have been in free fall while Opel has held up better. Market share for passenger cars dropped from 7.7% in 2012 to 3.3% for 2016. The decline would have been worse but for Opel. Light commercial vehicles fared slightly better, from 12.1% in 2012 to 7.9% in 2016.


GM Passenger Car Sales : RSA

Make/Yr 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Chevrolet 31,183 23,328 21,621 14,389 7,847

Opel 2,704 2,603 3,598 6,486 4,101

Total 33,887 25,931 25,219 20,875 11,948

Share 7.7% 5.8% 5.7% 5.1% 3.3%

GM LCV Sales : RSA

Chevrolet 19,556 18,484 16,865 16,693 12,578

Share 12.1% 11.0% 9.7% 9.6% 7.9%

There is no point in running operations that are losing money. However, as to why GM struggles to make money while other succeed is a valid question. Whatever the reasons, GM has decided to terminate its problem areas rather than continue to try fix them.

Data source: Naamsa.

09 May 2017

Opel/Vauxhall Euro Sales - 2012-16 (Nations)


When one looks closer at national sales of Opel/Vauxhall, certain countries are more partial to them than others. So in the final in this short series, let's look at how national purchasing varied.

First up Germany is the biggest market in Europe and where Opel is based. That didn't translate in to sales during this present decade. It was comfortably behind Europe's second biggest, the UK. France may be the third nation in size but ran fifth since 2011, when it was one place higher. Ironically Opel /Vauxhall are to come under France's PSA control so it will be interesting to see if that makes any difference. Spain's car manufacturing industry benefits from Opel/Vauxhall so that could explain the strong support it gets there.

The others (6th-10th) generally follow the size of their respective markets, with the exception of Denmark, which boxes above its weight. Russia was abandoned by Opel, hence the crash there. Of those not included, Sweden is a notable omission. The list below is the top ten in each year.

12 13 14 15 16
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
1 1 1 1 1 UK 258,852 289,279 301,931 311,642 288,865
2 2 2 2 2 Germany 224,468 217,686 231,147 242,677 258,598
3 4 3 3 3 Italy 82,806 74,709 80,643 94,424 102,034
6 6 4 4 4 Spain 52,698 57,417 70,488 81,976 96,525
5 5 5 5 5 France 78,923 65,024 66,791 70,952 75,273
7 7 7 6 6 Turkey 49,825 55,993 39,255 47,000 55,471
8 8 8 7 7 Belg/Lux 41,666 39,126 37,363 39,763 45,413
9 9 10 9 8 Nederland 41,338 28,391 27,820 31,368 38,775
- - 9 8 9 Poland - - 28,052 31,914 37,501
10 10 - 10 10 Austria 21,323 21,752 - 23,977 24,864
4 3 6 - - Russia 81,242 81,421 64,985 - -

Data source: GM Europe.