Toyota Ends Tough Year With Record High Market Share

Few car makers will look back fondly on 2009, but Toyota has made the best of a bad situation thanks to new models and a well organised, fast starting scrappage scheme offer that had attracted many buyers keen to buy into the quality and strong residual value of the brand.

The highlights are a record high market share of the passenger car market of 5.14 per cent, placing Toyota fourth in the rankings ahead of traditional rivals such as Peugeot, Nissan and Honda. Previous bests were sixth in 2006 and 2008.

December was a record month in itself (6,097 sales) as was the Fourth Quarter (22,699 sales). The annual sales volume was 102,595, just 2.8 per cent down on the previous year compared to the market overall which was down 6.4 per cent.

A factor in Toyota’s success was the high proportion of retail sales. Two-thirds (66 per cent) of Toyota sales were to private buyers (compared to 41 per cent for Ford and Vauxhall and 46 per cent for VW), a strong endorsement of the values of the brand from private individuals with the freedom to choose any make of car. Private buyers quote quality, reliability and environmental leadership among the principal reasons for their choice of a Toyota.

Within the figures some key points are:

The new iQ out-sold the smart ForTwo Coupe (7,800 vs 6,508 – not incl. cabrio)
Yaris was fourth best-selling small car, ahead of Polo, Jazz and Clio
Prius out-sold the cheaper Honda Insight by more than 3:1(7,941 vs. 2,471)
Urban Cruiser became the third best-selling small SUV in its first year on sale

December volume records:

• Record Toyota passenger car (PC) volume of 6,097 units (previous December record 6,081 in 2005)
• Record Toyota PC Retail volume of 4,345 units (previous December record 3,397 in 2003)
• Record TGB* Retail volume of 4,600 units (previous December record 3,968 in 2003)

Fourth Quarter volume and share records:

• Record Toyota PC volume of 22,669 units (previous Q4 record 22,515 in 2003)
• Record Toyota PC Retail volume of 16,184 units (previous Q4 record 14,378 in 2003)
• Record Toyota PC Retail share of 5.81 per cent (previous Q4 record 5.24 in 2003)
• Record TGB* Retail volume of 17,118 units (previous Q4 record 16,400 in 2003)
• Record TGB* Retail share of 5.84 per cent (previous Q4 record 5.53 in 2003)

Annual share records:

• Record Toyota PC share of 5.14 per cent (previous record 5.02 in 2006)
• Record TGB share of 5.31 per cent (previous record 5.24 in 2007)
• Record Toyota PC Retail share of 6.13 per cent (previous record 5.88 in 2008)
• Record TGB* Retail share of 6.31 per cent (previous record 6.12 in 2008)

ENDS

*(TGB includes commercial vehicles and Lexus)