Cars market runs out of steam?

Australia’s love affair with cars goes on unabated but it appears the cloudy economic outlook, combined with some currency-inspired price rises. might be putting a bit of a dent in the market. The latest figures for April show the passenger car market taking a bit of breather – falling 0.8 per cent – while the appetite for Sport Utility Vehicles seems to have finally plateaued.

Year-on-year figures show the trend for car sales down 1.9 per cent.. Passenger vehicle sales were down 4.8 per cent, while SUVs sales were up by 4.5 per cent and “other vehicles” down by 4.0 per cent.

The total numbers for the vehicle market are still impressive with 1.125 million vehicles sold in the year to April, down from the 2013 record of 1.141 million sales.

The trendline might help explain why so many vehicle outlets are bombarding consumers with end of financial year special deals plus tempting cheap financing arrangements.

But if you’re in the market for a new car perhaps you should look at the latest quality figures published in America. They not only give you an insight  into reliability but also show some interesting global trends in the car industry.

For the second year running Porsche tops the list of the J.G.Power 2014 US Initial Quality Study  (IQS), which records the number of problems experienced by purchasers per 100 vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership. It covers 233 problems across eight areas, including interior/exterior, audio, communications and navigation and  the all-important driving experience.

Of  course no car is perfect, even Porsche recorded 74 problem areas across 100 vehicles, but this is still well below the industry average (for the USA) of 116 per 100 vehicles.

But it was Jaguar, now owned by Indian conglomerate Tata coming in second that raised a few eyebrows and pushed the ever-reliable Lexus into third place.  Korean twins Hyundai and Kai coming in at 4th and 7th respectively surrounded Toyota,  while Kia nudged BMW back into eighth spot which it shared with Honda.

The surprise from the survey was Mazda and Subaru, long-regarded in Australia as strikingly efficient, finishing well down the list. (check the survey out at www. jdpower.com)

And while we’re on the subject of cars, some work published by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) recently came to the conclusion that the petrol-driven car is  the most economic from as purchaser’s point of view,  despite the emergence of hybrids, electric cars plus more diesel-powered cars entering the market.

The RACV quoted the high market price of cars using new technologies as the major deterrent to purchase, but did conclude  that diesel came into its own on running costs where bigger vehicles like SUVs were preferred.

Interestingly it noted engine efficiencies that had made diesel popular in recent years were now readily available in number of smaller passenger vehicles where fuel consumption matched or undercut diesel’s advantage. Full survey racv.com.au

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