Holden Cruze and Hyundai i30 go head to head in battle for fleet buyers

[R-Design]

Interesting article, didn't realise 6 in 10 Toyota's went to the Fleet market.

Originally Posted by By RON HAMMERTON

HOLDEN’S Cruze and Hyundai’s i30 are slugging it out in the Australian small car fleet business, with the locally assembled Cruze winning more business buyers while the imported i30 has the edge in government purchases.

Figures seen by GoAuto show the two vehicles also dominate rental company small-car sales, with at least one in 10 vehicles from both models being unloaded into this low-profit sales arena.

Unsurprisingly, the Cruze and i30 also have the lowest percentage of private sales among the top contenders in the small-car segment, with private buyers taking about 58 per cent of Cruze’s 19,452 sales so far this year, and 48 per cent of i30’s 17,144 units.

This compares with 87 per cent for the segment-leading Mazda3. The Japanese importer has delivered more than 21,000 out of its 24,502 small car sales this year to private purchasers, helping to make Mazda the number one seller of private vehicles in the nation, even though it is only ranked number four in total volume.

The three local car-makers – Toyota, Holden and Ford – have worked on increasing their share of the profitable private retails and reducing their dependence on fleet business in recent years, cutting their percentage of fleet sales from a reported 70 per cent in years gone by to about 55-60 per cent per cent today.

This unwillingness to dump cars into fleets at little or no profit simply to gain throughput at the factory has contributed to a decline in traditional large and medium car volumes in Australia while also opening the door for low-cost importers such as Hyundai to gain traction.

Toyota is still the dominant fleet player by a wide margin, ranking number one in both business and government volumes and number two to Holden in the rental market.

All up, about 60 per cent of Toyota vehicle sales end up on fleets, with most – 44,637 vehicles out of the total 98,108 Toyota sales in Australia this year – going directly to corporate buyers.

But Toyota’s imported small-car contender, the Corolla – once dominant in fleet small-car sales – has eased back to third place behind the Cruze and i30 in business, government and rental fleet sales this year, while its percentage of private buyers has risen to almost 68 per cent – on par with other Japanese imports such as the Mitsubishi Lancer and Subaru Impreza and not far behind the Volkswagen Golf (70 per cent).

Government business got a little more difficult for Toyota and its Corolla recently with Holden’s decision to manufacture the Cruze locally. Under federal government fleet purchasing rules, Australian-made cars – so-called Tier 1 vehicles – have to be given precedence over imports by federal fleet managers.

Only when a suitable vehicle cannot be found among those Tier 1 cars can a federal fleet or senior department official elect to select an imported vehicle.

As Cruze is the sole Tier 1 small car, it should have an advantage over other small cars, at the federal level, at least.

So far, the Hyundai i30 is still number one in government sales by a distance over the Cruze – 2433 to 1540 – revealing some governments and related ‘quangos’ are opting for the Korean car.

The VW Golf – one of the up-and-coming cars of the small-car segment, thanks to favourable Euro exchange rates – has no rental fleet sales and only tiny government fleet participation (110 vehicle or one per cent of Golf volume in the seven months to July).

However, the Golf is emerging as a major player in business fleets, possibly thanks to novated lease customers looking for a bit of European flair.

Almost 29 per cent of the Golf’s 10,523 sales YTD are attributed to business customers – a higher percentage than the Cruze, i30 or Corolla, and way ahead of the Mazda3’s tiny 12.5 per cent.

Similarly, the Subaru Impreza’s percentage of business sales is 30.2 per cent. Subaru also clearly does not bother chasing sales of Impreza in the rental or government markets (although it does sell Forester compact SUVs to those fleets), and maintains a strong private ownership rate of about 68 per cent.

Of all the small cars on the market, only eight nameplates have registered rental fleet sales in 2011, while 16 are credited with government sales.

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...2578EA0015B5B8

[Road_Warrior]

With luck, the Ecboost Falcon will get back into favour with government (and other Co1 sensitive) fleets.

[Gobes32]

How can the i30 win more government business than the Cruze. That is garbage.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

How can the i30 win more government business than the Cruze. That is garbage.

Why not? Perhaps the i30 was a better 'total package'? What other factors are looked at when buying? Warranty, resale (which is very high for the i30), cost of parts and repairs, servicing costs, running costs etc etc etc.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

How can the i30 win more government business than the Cruze. That is garbage.

Retail is a good example:
i-30 at $18,990 drive away Vs Cruze CD at $21,990 drive away


I would bet that the government still gets the i30 way cheaper than Cruze,
maybe getting the best deal is still a high priority too...
So if there's a substantial gap in price, you can bet Hyundai will
exploit it when bulk sales to the government are at stake.

[buggerlugs]

We had friends step out of a 2 year old corolla and into an i30 and they absolutely love the i30.......

[blueoval]

I've seen a lot of Cruze's and i30's on the road of late during peak hour traffic. Now I kind of know why.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by buggerlugs

We had friends step out of a 2 year old corolla and into an i30 and they absolutely love the i30.......

i30 is a good vehicle.

Cruze hatchback will be arriving later this year will put sales even closer to Mazda 3.

[R-Design]

Has anyone seen the fleet vs retail percentages for the Aurion/Camry twins. It must be closer to 75-80%. If that the case, why doesn't it impact resale as is the case with Falcon/Commodore?

Apparently everyone must love ex-fleet Toyota's?

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

How can the i30 win more government business than the Cruze. That is garbage.

The lowest price for an I30 is $18990 retail. The lowest price for a cruze is $21990. I am sure the governments get a fairly good discount on the retail prices, but whatever they are, you can be assured that at whatever price, they are still getting base model I30's at a roughly $3000 discount to a base model cruze. Governments should buy everything exactly the same way most people buy things, value for money.

Has anyone seen the fleet vs retail percentages for the Aurion/Camry twins. It must be closer to 75-80%. If that the case, why doesn't it impact resale as is the case with Falcon/Commodore?

Build Quality ???? Brand Quality??????

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

How can the i30 win more government business than the Cruze. That is garbage.

Because the i30 is a better car than the Cruze.

The company I work for got out of Falcons and into i30 sportswagons and i35, the sales reps love them over the falcon.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by The G6ET Spot

Because the i30 is a better car than the Cruze.

The company I work for got out of Falcons and into i30 sportswagons and i35, the sales reps love them over the falcon.

I think this situation is being repeated in a lot of smaller businesses, Hyundai is getting big raps from fleet buyers.

[Ford_The_Win]

Originally Posted by Boss315

Has anyone seen the fleet vs retail percentages for the Aurion/Camry twins. It must be closer to 75-80%. If that the case, why doesn't it impact resale as is the case with Falcon/Commodore?

Apparently everyone must love ex-fleet Toyota's?

20+ years of making reliable and well built cars puts Toyota's brand image and customer satisfaction far above Holden and Ford, basically.

[FPV+fteT3]

We just bought 3 more i30's for our sales reps good cheap car for the purpose we use them for. Why buy a falcon/commo/camry for 10-15k more when the i30 will do the job replaced every 3 years the resale or trade on the i30 will be greater than the large falcon the running costs are much lower on the i30 these are the things that matter to fleet buyers more so than what badge the car wears.
The first i30 we bought a year ago for a test mule and we were happy with it we are changing the whole fleet over to them.

[Bossxr8]

If government fleets must purchase australian made vehicles before imported ones of the same type, then how is the I30 outselling the Cruze to fleets?

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

If government fleets must purchase australian made vehicles before imported ones of the same type, then how is the I30 outselling the Cruze to fleets?

Possibly the $3,000 price difference is a major influence...

[mcnamg]

maybe the hatch vs sedan situation is a loophole?

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Possibly the $3,000 price difference is a major influence...

But regulations say government fleets must choose an australian made vehicle over an imported one of the same type. Maybe as said being a sedan rather than a hatch.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

If government fleets must purchase australian made vehicles before imported ones of the same type, then how is the I30 outselling the Cruze to fleets?

Local Cruze only started deliveries 2 or 3 months ago

[kpcart]

the i30 is a brilliant car for the price. even has 5 star safety rating. the i30 is the new corolla, and korean cars are the new 'japanese' cars. basically the korean car manufacturers are now world class cars, and are still cheap - add the warrenty, service, etc. - you can not go wrong. the cruze is great too, if only ford could have a car like that, beaten to it by holden.

[mik]

reading some owners reviews about problems over the last week on the cruise, if had i had to choose between the 2, i think i`d go the hiundies as well.

[RG]

Interesting.

It'll be even more interesting once the new Elantra and Accent sedan come out too.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by RG

Interesting.

It'll be even more interesting once the new Elantra and Accent sedan come out too.

You mean this new Accent?
http://www.carsales.com.au/reviews/2...h-review-26251

[Gobes32]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Local Cruze only started deliveries 2 or 3 months ago

Because of this I retract my previous statement.

I am aware the i30 is a good car, my partner drives one at work and loves it, however I was basing my argument that the G'ment paid Holden a shed load of dollars to assemble the cruze in OZ only for them to purchase koren vehicles. I would wait for figures towards the end of the year before I make any more judgements.

[vztrt]

I'd take an i30 over the cruze. Hyundai has impressed me over the last few years....easily the best Korean manufacturer out there.

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

Because of this I retract my previous statement.

I am aware the i30 is a good car, my partner drives one at work and loves it, however I was basing my argument that the G'ment paid Holden a shed load of dollars to assemble the cruze in OZ only for them to purchase koren vehicles. I would wait for figures towards the end of the year before I make any more judgements.

Thats the Feds. The federal government is only one of 9 governments in australia. The feds and maybe the south australian government may have reason to push the cruze (but probably the two governments with the worst budget positions in australia) , but WA, NT, Tas, NSW, Vic, ACT and Qld are probably going to put their hands up to who ever offers the best deal.

I assume you are seeking some link between labor and spending money intelligently. Does Pink Batts, BER, Subsidizing solar power only to have every solar panel imported, Carbon tax - only to allow australian companies to buy carbon credits off shore, ring a bell.

[1TUFFUTE]

at my wifes gov work they have a weird assortment of cars...they have 1 i30...2 lancers...2 corollas....a suburu forester..and the totally unwanted and undriven prius lol...oh and a large 4wd shes not sure about. Now thats what i call a loose leash whoever is choosing cars in their office....

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by 1TUFFUTE

at my wifes gov work they have a weird assortment of cars...they have 1 i30...2 lancers...2 corollas....a suburu forester..and the totally unwanted and undriven prius lol...oh and a large 4wd shes not sure about. Now thats what i call a loose leash whoever is choosing cars in their office....

Yet Ford think they have a chance with the $42000 EcoBoost Falcon with fleets...they are dreaming.

[RG]

Originally Posted by blueoval

You mean this new Accent?
http://www.carsales.com.au/reviews/2...h-review-26251

Nope the sedan, looks like a small Elantra which in turn is a small i45.

Actually quite impressive.