Hilux wins in the showroom, SUV sales keep on booming

AUSTRALIAN new car buyers can’t seem to get enough of dual cab utes with the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux continuing their tussle at the top of the sales charts, preliminary sales figures for the month of June show.

It is the Hilux which wins though; with 5461 examples of the dual cab ute rolling off showroom floors last month.

The Ranger was Australia’s second-most popular vehicle in June with 5051 sales, while the Toyota Corolla was the top-selling passenger car with 3830 sales.

The Hyundai Tuscon leads the country’s SUV charge, with 3741 of the high-riding soft-roaders being sold in June, while the Mazda 3 rounded out the top five vehicles with 3490 sales. The all-new Hyundai i30 recorded its first full month of sales in June, but was bumped from the top five by a scant 19 sales.

Toyota remains the country’s most popular manufacturer overall, with a total of 24,546 sales in June bringing its year-to-date tally to 109,026 sales. That’s an increase of 2463 sales month-on-month compared to 2016, and 6682 year to date compared to 2016.

Toyota sold almost double the number of cars of its closest competitor in June, and accounted for 18.3 percent of all cars sold in the country during the month.

Mazda claimed the runner-up position with 12,501 sales, edging ahead of Hyundai in third with 12,251. Holden just held onto fourth for the month with 9273 cars sold, while Mitsubishi rounded out the top five with 9266.

Next was Ford (8853), Nissan (6690), Kia (6737), Volkswagen (6447), and Honda (5412) completing the top 10.

Outside the top sellers, it was the Ford Mustang which once again impressed, with 1,279 pony cars being sold in June continuing its long streak as Australia’s favourite sports car. The next best car in that segment is the Hyundai Veloster, which only sold 322 units.

In total, 134,171 cars were sold in June, bringing the year-to-date tally to 599,552 nationally – an increase of 1,412 year on year.

While dual cab utes finished one-two in the sales ranks, it was SUVs that Australians couldn’t get enough of.

SUV sales tallied 51,393 for the month, while passenger car sales were 50,646. Just 28,253 light commercial vehicles were sold during the same time (including vans and light buses), however this still represents an increase of 12.2 percent month on month.

Private sales accounted for 68,150 cars being sold last month, but business/fleet sales boomed to 52,039.

Businesses were unsurprisingly the largest buyer in the light commercial segment, which the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger are counted in, while private sales ranked number one in all other segments.

While there is no denying the numbers presented by the Ranger and Hilux, when it comes to cars being placed in private driveways around Australia, the best-selling car race is probably far tighter.

Note that the above figures are based on preliminary sales data – official VFACTS sales figures will be released at midday today.