Holden has achieved its highest first half sales in history and reached the half year mark with Australia’s best selling passenger and light truck ranges.

Best-ever single month results for the Astra and Rodeo nameplates drove the result past Holden’s first half record set last year.

Holden sold a total of 17,108 vehicles during June for a first half total of 90,228, almost 2,000 units more than its previous record of 88,381.

Holden secured 16.8% total market share in June amid an all-time industry record month of 101,907. Holden was second in June behind Toyota at 21.1% and ahead of Ford at 12.7%. Year to date, Holden had 18.1% share behind Toyota at 19.6% and ahead of Ford at 13.4%.

Holden Executive Director Sales and Marketing, Ross McKenzie, said the traditional rush to buy cars and trucks at the end of the financial year had delivered a powerful result for Holden and the broader industry.

“This is the first time that the industry has sold more than 100,000 units in a month which reflects the June buying surge as well as continued confidence in the consumer and business segments and cheap cost of borrowing,” Mr McKenzie said.

“Holden’s expectation that the market will reach one million units for the first time in 2005 appears more achievable than ever. The industry is at 498,967 at the half year and the second half is traditionally stronger for sales.

“We expect Holden to build its volume and market share in the second half. We will continue to build on our small car momentum with new Astra three-door and wagon models, the Tigra hard-top convertible, new Barina models and a new carline in Viva.”

Holden’s small car flagship, Astra, achieved its best ever monthly result with 3,279 and finished the half-year up 33.2 per cent to 17,965 units. Improved inventory flow for Adventra allowed the all-wheel-drive wagon to achieve its second best monthly result ever with 352 units.

First half Commodore sales were down slightly to 36,228 from 38,510 but the margin between Commodore and its nearest rival was significantly larger at 8,901 for the half compared with 5,011 last year. Commodore was the best selling large car for the 21st consecutive month.

Rodeo achieved its best ever result with 2,744 units and helped Holden secure the light truck segment with 23,823 sales and 27.8% share ahead of Toyota and Ford. Within that segment, Rodeo and Commodore Ute variants outsold their closest rivals for the first half.

2005 Holden Adventra CX6 - VZ series