By Angus Delaney and Craig Butt
When it comes to the cars people drive, Melbourne is a haunted city. Two of the three most popular models on our roads are no longer being made: the Holden Commodore, which ceased production in 2017, and the Ford Falcon, discontinued in 2016 when Australia’s car manufacturing industry collapsed.
Not only does the type of vehicle you drive depend on where you live, but its size can too, with the little Volkswagen Golf ruling the inner city while a bigger beast that isn’t a car at all - the Toyota Hilux ute - dominates Melbourne’s fringes and regional Victoria.
The Age’s analysis of federal Department of Transport data reveals the most popular cars by postcode, and which areas buck the trend.
What about your area? To find out, type your postcode into the box below to discover the 10 most popular car models:
In this car-reliant state, there are almost 5.5 million registered vehicles (including trucks, motorbikes and caravans), which only slightly trails the 6.5 million Victorians recorded at the 2021 census.
The Toyota Corolla (in yellow on the map below) is the most common vehicle across Victoria, with just over 183,000 throughout the state. It is the top car in 107 of the 283 residential postcodes that make up Greater Melbourne, largely in middle-ring areas such as Bundoora, Clayton, Altona and Reservoir.
The Holden Commodore (represented in purple) comes in second, and is particularly favoured in the north-western and south-eastern suburbs. It is the most common car in 39 postcodes, including Sunbury, Melton, Frankston and Cranbourne.
The Ford Falcon (light blue) remains popular and is the third most common car on the state’s roads. It tops the list in 18 Melbourne postcodes.
The Volkswagen Golf (red) is the most common vehicle in 16 postcodes in the inner city, including Toorak, Brighton, Prahran and Carlton North, while the Mazda 3 (dark blue) is the car of choice in 26 postcodes in this region, although its territory extends further south along the coast into Aspendale, Chelsea, Mornington and Mount Martha.
And in 41 postcodes, largely on the edge of Greater Melbourne, the most common vehicle is Toyota’s Hilux ute (orange on the map). It’s also the most popular vehicle across much of rural/regional Victoria.
In the Melbourne CBD and Docklands, the Ford Ranger ute is the most common vehicle, although this may be because businesses that have their main office in the city centre have registered their fleet of company vehicles to this postcode.
Portsea is the only postcode in which the Range Rover is the most common vehicle, while South Melbourne is the only place where the Hyundai i30 tops the list.
The Age’s analysis has excluded cars that are registered in Victoria but have owners living in interstate postcodes. Cars sitting in dealerships count towards each suburb’s total figure.
Unsurprisingly, luxury cars are mostly found in Melbourne’s richest suburbs, with Brighton, Toorak, Portsea, Sorrento and Collingwood/Collingwood North the only areas with a Porsche in the 10 most common models.
There are more Porsches than Corollas in Toorak, with the Cayenne, Macan and 911 models all ranking in the Toorak top 10 for a total of 562 Porsches.
Brighton takes the cake for most Porsches in a suburb, though, with 767 registered to 3186, but Toorak has the most Ferraris (83) and Rolls-Royces (44).
John Dawes, a professor of marketing at the University of South Australia, said proximity to dealerships mattered in choosing a car, which has supported Toyota’s success in the local market, with dozens of dealerships throughout Victoria. Additionally, buyers often only consider a handful of the most well-known brands.
In quirkier findings, a handful of classic London cabs are registered in Southbank, and Victoria is home to at least four DeLoreans - a car that flopped commercially in the 1980s but is remembered for its time-travelling role in Back To The Future.
Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) and Michael J Fox (Marty McFly) with the time-travelling DeLorean in Back To The Future. In the sequel, Doc Brown uses banana peels to help fire up the DeLorean.
A smattering of Bond cars can be found across Victoria, including 007’s original ride, the Sunbeam Alpine from Dr No (1962), and the Aston Martin DBS featured in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) and, more recently, Skyfall (2012).
For fans of Herbie the Love Bug (1969), there are 2123 Volkswagen Beetles in Victoria, with Ballarat being the area where you’re most likely to come across them.
A spokesperson from the Department of Transport said the data informs decision-making for the public and private sectors.
James Bond (Daniel Craig) and his trusty Aston Martin DBS.Credit: AP
“This data is made publicly available to support governments, industry and other stakeholders to better understand Australia’s current vehicle fleet and how it is changing over time,” said the spokesperson.
“The data is also used by the insurance, secondhand motor vehicle, and motor vehicle repairers and parts industries to inform business planning.”
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