The Toyota HiLux is set to become the first commercial vehicle to be crowned Australia's most popular new car.
The rugged workhorse ute leads the 2016 sales race at the last hurdle after topping the charts as the best-selling vehicle in November, finishing over 400 units in front of the Ford Ranger - marking the first month that two commercial vehicles have finished ahead of regular passenger vehicles.
According to VFacts figures due to be released today and seen by Drive, the HiLux leads the Toyota Corolla in a two-horse race to the flag with the ute edging in front of Australia's most popular new car for the past two years by just 615 units - 38,018 sales for HiLux compared to 37,403 for Corolla so far in 2016.
Toyota also cemented its place as the country's favourite car maker, topping the overall sales chart in November with 18,162 new car registrations - almost double that of its closest rival, Mazda, which sold 9825 new cars while Hyundai rounded out the podium with 7991 sales.
Toyota leads the overall market to the end of November with 189,685 sales, more than 80,000 units ahead of Mazda on 108,446 while Hyundai, currently sitting on 94,503 units (342 behind this time last year) will no doubt push hard this month with dealer incentives and sales promotions to match last year's six-figure result.
Both of the Japanese car makers look set to post record annual sales results in 2016, with Toyota and Mazda running slightly ahead of the overall market which is up 2.2 percent year-to-date on last year's benchmark of 1.13 million new cars.
The HiLux is playing a significant role in a dynamic shift of buying tastes towards crossover vehicles that has seen the light commercial vehicle segment increase sales by 9.5 percent year-on-year and the SUV segment increase by 8.9 percent while conventional passenger cars have tumbled by 5.9 percent.
While the HiLux holds a commanding lead as the most popular ute - almost 8000 units ahead of the Ranger - the Corolla also looks set to maintain its position as Australia's favourite passenger car, leading the Hyundai i30 and Mazda3 by 2500 and 4500 units respectively.
But Mazda looks to have a stranglehold on the best-selling SUV title, with its CX-5 winning an ultra-close contest in November (with just 22 units separating it from the Hyundai Tucson in third position with the Nissan X-Trail in between) to lead the segment by almost 4000 units.
The Holden Commodore is also locked in a Titanic tussle with the Toyota Camry to retain its place as the best-selling Australian-made car as the Commodore leads the Camry to the end of November by just over 2000 units. With Toyota's family sedan pushing close to a podium finish in November with 2957 sales - 869 more than the Commodore - it will be a nail-biting finish for both cars in their last full year of local production.
While the popularity of utes and SUVs continues to build, so does Australia's penchant for luxury cars with Mercedes-Benz beating mainstream rivals Kia and Honda to a place among the 10 best-selling brands in November.
The German brand is riding a wave of success as the country's favourite luxury car maker, with year-on-year growth of 15 percent and a healthy 11k margin so far in 2016 over its arch-rival BMW which has also experienced double-digit growth in 2016. Audi is also running ahead of its previous best sales result in 2015, but has only experienced a four percent increase year-on-year.
Jaguar has been one of the big movers in the prestige sector, almost doubling its sales in 2016 on the strength of new models such as the XE and XF sedans as well as the company's first SUV, the F-Pace.
Top 10 brands (November 2016)
1. Toyota 18,162
2. Mazda 9825
3. Hyundai 7991
4. Holden 7750
5. Ford 6827
6. Nissan 6341
7. Mitsubishi 5875
8. Volkswagen 4862
9. Subaru 4141
10. Mercedes-Benz 3584
Top 10 vehicles (November 2016)
1. Toyota HiLux 3839
2. Ford Ranger 3410
3. Toyota Corolla 3245
4. Toyota Camry 2957
5. Mazda3 2877
6. Hyundai i30 2541
7. Holden Commodore 2088
8. Mazda CX-5
=9 Nissan X-Trail 1938
=9 Nissan Navara 1938
6 Comments
Selector 2 | 2016-12-05 04:47:58
I guess there are not too many elks in Australia?
Steve 0 | 2016-12-05 05:48:26
Not too many patriotic Aussies either!
Selector 2 | 2016-12-05 23:10:42
Patriotic Aussies that buy American ie Holden ?
Hsvandrew | 2016-12-06 06:15:09
looking forward to seeing holdens result for 2017 once the real commodore isn't on the list anymore. I can't see many in the current market for a real commodore wanting the rubbish that will replace it. As the Ve and Vf already had quality issues compared with the vt/vx before them I hate to think how poor the last vfs will be built by a team that knows they are getting fired soon and I'm sure anyone that was amazing will have already secured another job elsewhere. Holden will be well down the list once the only popular car they has is gone. Maybe then they will learn a lesson
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Cavmaga | 2016-12-06 13:17:13
Seems legit...