VFACTS March 2024: Ford’s Ranger and Everest lead the charge

The Ford Ranger continues to blitz the sales charts, remaining Australia’s best-selling overall vehicle.

A total of 5661 new Rangers (4x4 and 4x2 combined) were sold in March 2024, placing it well ahead of the Toyota HiLux which sold 3995 units (4x4 and 4x2 combined). As a result the HiLux slipped out of the Top Three on the sales charts, falling behind the Toyota RAV4 (5070 sales) and Tesla Model Y (4379 sales).

Even when you exclude the 4x2 variants, the Ranger remains atop the sales charts with a total of 5135 4x4 variants sold in March 2024. Specific to the 4x4 charts it’s followed by the Toyota HiLux (3555 sales) and Isuzu D-MAX (1847 sales). Year-to-date, the Ranger 4x4 has now outsold the HiLux 4x4 by 3320 units (14,240 versus 10,920).

3

In another tick for the blue oval, Ford’s Everest had a stellar month by selling a total of 2264 units (+129.8 per cent versus March 2023). This made it the best-selling 4x4 wagon for the month, ahead of the Isuzu MU-X (1886), and Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series (1219). And, as Toyota prepares for the launch of its nex-gen Prado, sales of existing Prado stock continues to decline, with only 446 units sold in March 2024.

Zooming in on the budget offerings and GWM’s Ute sold a total of 774 4x4 units, placing it ahead of both the LDV T60 (446) and SsangYong Musso (306). At the other end of the market, the RAM 1500 (313) just outsold both the Chevrolet Silverado (309) and Ford F-150 (238).

The total number of sales for Light Commercial Vehicles landed at 23,061 for the month, which is up by 1049 vehicle sales (+4.8 per cent) versus March 2023. This gave it a 21 per cent share of the total market for March. So far in 2024 the LCV market has a 22.1 per cent share, with a total number of 67,426 LCVs sold.

3

Breaking it down further reveals a total of 17,629 4x4 utes (PU/CC) were shifted in March 2024, up from 16,474 sales in March 2023 and giving it a 16.1 per cent slice of the market – only behind the medium SUV segment (26.3 per cent).

Across the board, the SUV market is up a whopping 20.7 per cent compared to March 2023; the Passenger Vehicle market is up 2.5 per cent; and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle market is down by 4.1 per cent.

This all combines to create the best-ever first quarter sales result for new vehicle sales (January to March) with a total number of 304,452 sales, an increase of 13.2 per cent versus Q1 of 2023.

“This is a terrific result for the sector; however, all car brands are well aware that these results cannot be taken for granted,” said FCAI Chief Executive, Tony Weber. “We need to factor in the ongoing cost of living pressures and the challenges for industry and consumers that will emerge with the introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) in less than nine months.”