Ford Ranger tops the sales charts for November

The Toyota HiLux has been king of the road for seven years but a locally-designed challenger is nipping at its heels. Here’s what’s hot and not in new cars.

Utes rule the roost on Australian roads. Picture: Mark Bean

There could be a changing of the guard in Australian car showrooms, as the locally engineered and designed Ford Ranger threatens to topple the mighty Toyota HiLux as top dog.

The Ranger outsold the HiLux last month and it is now just 379 sales shy of the Toyota in the sales race.

The Isuzu D-Max ute was the third best selling vehicle in the country.

Australians are poised to buy a record number of new cars this year, despite rising prices and higher interest rates.

We’ve already bought 36,000 more cars than we did in the whole of last year and December is likely to be a big month with the annual sales title on the line.

But not everyone is smiling. Some carmakers are losing market share as they struggle to overcome supply line blockages.

Here’s what was hot and what was not last month.

The Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger are neck and neck in the sales race. Picture: Mark Bean

HOT

Utes

Australia’s love affair with utes shows no signs of ending. We bought more than 20,000 4WD utes last month, up 32 per cent on last November.

While the HiLux and Ranger took the lion’s share of sales, Isuzu’s D-Max was also popular, attracting more than twice as many buyers as it did last November. Isuzu Ute sells only two vehicles in Australia – the D-Max and the MU-X wagon – yet it was one of the top ten brands last month.

Sales of big American-style pick-ups dipped last month but the arrival of the world’s top-selling truck, the Ford F-Series, should kick things along next month.

The MG ZS is the top-selling SUV in the country this year. Picture: Supplied.

Chinese brands

Aussies are going wild for well-priced Chinese vehicles.

The established brands have virtually deserted the lower end of the car market and budget conscious buyers are finding their dollar goes further with a Chinese brand.

Sales of Chinese cars are up 65 per cent this year. MG leads the way with more than 50,000 sales, a rise of 23 per cent on last year.

It is now the seventh biggest brand in the country, overtaking the likes of Subaru, Nissan and Volkswagen.

The Tesla Model Y is the best-selling electric vehicle. Picture: Thomas Wielecki.

Electric cars

Globally, carmakers are scaling back production of electric vehicles, having over-estimated the level of sustained interest from buyers. But the technology is still in its honeymoon period in Australia.

We bought roughly 10,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in November, more than double the same period last year.

Year-to-date, electric vehicle sales are up 184 per cent. Tesla’s Model Y leads the charge and could still finish the year as the top-selling SUV in the country.

Mitsubishi is sweating on the arrival of a new Triton in February next year. Picture: Supplied.

NOT

Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi executives are praying for a new Triton like farmers pray for rain.

The workhorse ute was once a regular top-seller, making up a third of the brand’s total sales, but the current model is on its last legs and sales have dipped by 45 per cent. A new model arrives in February next year.

The brand will be heartened by the performance of the new Outlander, which has proved a solid performer, attracting more than 22,000 buyers this year, 28 per cent up on last year.

A new sales model hasn’t paid dividends for Mercedes-Benz this year. Picture: Supplied.

Mercedes-Benz

On the whole, the top end of town appears to be pretty resilient to rate rises and price increases, but that isn’t the case for Mercedes-Benz.

Sales have fallen by almost 12 per cent and the brand has been overtaken by arch rival BMW in the passenger car market.

Of the leading luxury brands, it is the only one to experience a decline in 2023. Audi sales are up 30 per cent, BMW is up 11 per cent and Lexus sales have more than doubled.

The German brand, which moved to a no-haggle sales policy and cut its dealers out of the sales process, might be questioning the wisdom of that strategy.

The 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre is the first electric car in the company’s 119-year history. Photo: Supplied.

Rolls Royce

Executives will be squirming in their Chesterfields, as the storied English brand has endured a frightful 2023. Sales are down by 17 per cent, while rival Bentley has enjoyed modest 6 per cent growth.

Fellow Brit Aston Martin is up 20 per cent, Ferrari has enjoyed a 9 per cent bump in sales, Lamborghini is up 28 per cent and Porsche sales grew by 11 per cent.

The brand will be looking forward to the arrival of its first electric vehicle, the Spectre, which will arrive here next year at the bargain price of $770,000 before on-road costs.