I know QLD is a small % of this countries new vehicle sales, but I just found some interesting statistics in the latest RACQ magazine. These are new vehicle sales in Queensland, 2004 YTD.

Like I was saying to Smoothy last night - "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" (quoting someone smarter than me - who was it???)

Anyway - I looked, and saw the RX-8 made it into 3rd place in the... wait for it... Luxury category WTF???

84 sales put it at 9.4% (for the category). This compared to 1st place Mercedes-Benz C-Class (106 units) and 2nd place BMW 3-Series at 101 units.

It was kinda wierd to see it in the Luxury category. But then I had a look at some other categories, and the numbers amused me a little, especially the "Sports" category:

Holden Monaro: 55 units (28.1%)
Holden Astra Convertible: 32 units (16.3%)
Honda Integra: 18 units (9.2%)

(From these figures you can work out that there were 196 total units in the category)

If the 84 RX-8s where included in the sports category the percentages would look like this (the category would now have 280 units)

Mazda RX-8: 30.0%
Holden Monaro: 19.6%
Holden Astra Convertible: 11.4%
Honda Integra: 6.4%

So a simple change of category for the RX-8 took it from 3rd place (by a small margin ~2%) to 1st place by a big margin (~10%). Note it also more than trebbled its % in the category from 9.4% to 30%.

Lots of fun with numbers

Other vehicles it outsold:

Toyota Tarago: 22 units
Holden Zafria: 21 units
Holden Statesman: 80 units
Ford Explorer: 42 units
Lexus RX330: 63 units
Jeep Grand Cherokee: 57 units

I assumed it is YTD, but there is this note, which is not totally clear to me:

(Source: VFACTS. Figures are for the full year and are current to March 1.)

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Hymee

R.A.C.Q.Luxury package only reffered to the RX8 luxury all leather pack not the more common cheap pov pack .ha ha ha( too good to resist HAVING A DIG ).

cheers
michael

 

It's been credited to the American author Mark Twain, but according to the Penguin Dictionary of 20th century quotations, he was quoting the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

 

Hi,
BVD, I didnt know there were any other WA people on this forum,
Does seem to be a fair few RX8's on the road here though.
Case

 

What I like about this stat is that the RX8 sales are effectively for a model (pov-pack notwithstanding) whereas the C-Class and 3-Series are each full model ranges.

NB: National RX8 sales 1st quarter = 576. No wonder I'm seeing more of us on the road!

Noddy

 

noddy, I've seen two red 8's in adelaide recently. One with black and white custom plates in the eastern suburbs, and one last night in the Firle shopping centre. Are any of these you?

Welcome as the third Adelaide member on rx8club

 

Hey AMG,

Who are you using in Adelaide to service the RX8?

I had the misfortune of dealing with the Mazda dealers in Adelaide for a number of years,..

Case

 

I'm using Paradise Motors. They have thus far (with the 7 and 8) given an excellent service

check your PM

 

Hi Case,

Great to see another fellow West Aussie here at last.

As you say, there seem to be a few RX8s around here now. I wonder how our stats would compare with the ones that Hymee posted? I think we'd have less here, with so few Mazda dealers in Perth, and relatively modest population.

There doesn't seem to be any focal point here yet for RX8 owner drive days, and other events like they've done over east, but the local MX5 club does accept RX8 owners. They put on a good autokhana day at Wanneroo a while back, which was a lot of fun.

Cheers, Chris (near Mundaring in the hills).

 

Nope, neither of those are me, though I've seen you about a couple of times (you probably can't see back through your cloud of tyre smoke :-) I'm still trying to decide what I want to do about a number plate. NODDY5 was just way too obvious for the MX5, but nothing seems right for the 8 (personalised vice custom plates).

And on Sinkas question, I use Paradise as well. I left them for a while when I had my first Five, but have since gone back there after Aussie started to annoy me. There's just not a whole lot of choice here for servicing.

BTW AMG, I've been on the forum for a while, but mostly just lurking.

 

were you the mX5 club member that bought the car about two months ago at paradise?

 

Possibly by their definitions, yes. I ordered with Kevin mid October, picked up mid November. But the service guys there said you had sold your 7 when you bought your 8, so clearly their definitions of reality may not match anyone else's.

 

They are a bit on the wrong side, I've still got the 7, and also I bought from Duttons at Murray Bridge, not Paradise, so they weren't to know.