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The Top Five From The Last Five

Picture Australian roads in the mid 1970s. It was the era of Holden, Ford, and Chrysler. Japanese brands such as Subaru and Toyota were known of, Korean cars simply didn’t “exist”, and four wheel drive capable utes were the end product of after-market conversion companies. European cars were largely luxury types or sports cars, with Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz up against Porsche, whilst Volkswagen was best known for its “people’s car” still.

The Kingswood and Falcon duked it out with the big Chrysler Valiant, sedans and wagons, like “light” and “heavy” beer were the only choices.
But it was also heading towards the days of the so-called oil crisis. Emissions were also becoming something that would be under the microscope, and European designs would soon start to filter their way through to the Aussie marketplace.

Punk music was just starting to grow, Queen were thriving, and a small film called Star Wars has people queuing around street corners.Times and tastes have changed over the last forty years or so. Technology has made substantial differences to how we enjoy viewing, watching, listening, and driving.

2014 Top Five.
Toyota already had a reputation for building solid off road cars. They were known for cheap to run, if not exciting to drive, small cars, and in 2014 their Corolla was the number one selling car. Competitor Mazda also grew from a good yet uninspiring range, bar the exciting and thirsty EX-7, and in 2014 their Corolla fighter, the Mazda 3 (once known as the 323 and shared with Ford as the Laser) ran a VERY close second. How close?43,735 “Rollas” were sold in 2014, against 43,313 3s. Toyota claimed position number 3 in 2014. Their HiLux 4×2 and 4×4 utes, in two and four door configurations was making steady progress through the sales charts and finished ahead of Hyundai’s i30 five door hatch. The once almost unstoppable Holden Commodore would take fifth in 2014.

2015 would see a change in the rankings with not one, but two, utes in the top five. Toyota had consolidated first again, with the Corolla still of big appeal at just over 42K vehicles finding new homes. Mazda’s 3 had gone backwards considerably, with 38,644 in new driveways.

HiLux would be third yet again in 2015 but had lost close to three thousand sales. In fourth it was Hyundai’s tidy i30 but in fifth, and with sales going up by about the same HiLux went down, was Ford’s overhauled Ranger. 29,185 Rangers were sold, up from 26,619 in 2014.

2016 was a watershed year for the Australian automotive manufacturing industry. The largely home grown Falcon was no more and Ford Australia had ceased local manufacturing. The top five in 2016 was a case of the same yet different. HiLux had been given a makeover, with a more assertive and blokey styling. This was enough to propel it to the top of the charts for 2016, and how! 42,104 versions were sold, an increase of just shy of seven thousand. Corolla made it a Toyota one-two with the i30 taking bronze again. Ranger increased sales by nearly eight thousand to finish fourth on 36.934, with the Mazda3 in fifth, down by over two thousand to 36,107.

Best selling cars of 2017.
Well, it was a battle of the utes this year. The tsunami that was HiLux in 2016 continued, with an increase of nearly five thousand from 2016. 47,093 of them were purchased. Ford’s Ranger shouldered through the Corolla range and with 42,728, silver on the podium was Ford’s for the taking. It was a tussle of the small cars for third, fourth, and fifth, with Corolla, Mazda3, and the i30 taking the minor placings. i30 had collapsed, with just 28,780 being sold compared to 2016’s 37,772. 2017 would also see Holden and Toyota pull down the shutters on their local manufacturing operations.

2018’s Best Sellers.
Australia’s love affair with the Commodore, and sedans in general, was well and truly over. But that love for the HiLux was increased even further, with the chunky machine seeing 51,705 rolling out of showrooms. In December of 2018 alone, 3871 were sold.

Ford’s Ranger had undergone a facelift in 2017 and that momentum continued to have the brawny Australian designed machine shift 42,144 units. This was close to seven thousand units ahead of the Corolla, with its own 2017, edgy looking, facelift not diminishing appeal. 35,320 Toyota Corollas were bought, well over four thousand more than the Mazda3. In fifth was the bridesmaid’s bridesmaid, Hyundai’s i30. However, in 2018, more attention was on the i30N than the others, which means a climb to fourth for 2019 may well be the case.

Of note is Mitsubishi’s Triton. A facelifted version was made available in early 2019, and 2018 saw 24,896 sold. Holden’s Colorado didn’t crack the top ten in comparison.

Tell us what you think of the current state of Australian car sales, and which brand grabs your fancy by getting in touch via our blog and social media connections. http://credit-n.ru/trips.html

3 comments

  1. Bill Nixon says:

    Ford claim the sales of the Mustang have been extremely high. Where does this car fit into the overall market picture?

    March 22nd, 2019 at 9:54 pm