TWO months into 2018 and mainstream manufacturers are pushing the Australian new-car market up by six per cent year-to-date (YTD), while premium brands and sports cars are in significant decline.

With each percentage decline in brackets, Aston Martin (-4.0), Audi (-9.3), Bentley (-7.7), BMW (-0.2), Infiniti (-64.3), Jaguar (-45.5), Land Rover (-18.8), Lamborghini (-17.9), McLaren (-0.7), Mercedes-Benz (-0.7) and Porsche (-5.8) show the consistency of the February YTD drops.

In total, sports cars under $80K and over $80K were down by a quarter, too, with only a couple of Italians – Alfa Romeo (+57.6) and Ferrari (+65.4) – bucking the trend in the declining premium space.

Even from a sizeable base, Honda soared (+43.2), while Toyota (+16.4), Mitsubishi (+14.5), Kia (+12.3), Hyundai (+10.4) and Subaru (+5.1) chipped in with rises as well.

Ford, Mazda and Volkswagen have flatlined, while Holden dropped dramatically (-19.4). Caught between the arrival of new ZB and run-out VF Series II, the Commodore shed over half its YTD volume, with sales of 1608 versus 3526.

In February alone, Holden sold 4689 vehicles, allowing what once was the unthinkable to almost occur – Kia (4664) fell just 25 vehicles short of beating it, while Nissan (4863), Honda (4962), Ford (6059), Mitsubishi (7142), and Hyundai (8001) breezed into higher positions. And, of course, Mazda (9913) and Toyota (18,281) remained at the top.