√Ford Ranger poised to end Toyota HiLux seven-year winning streak

The Toyota HiLux is holding onto the top sales spot in Australia by a thread, as Ford rents a ship to deliver vehicles to showrooms as fast as possible – and clear the backlog of orders.

Former favourite Ford has its best chance in almost 30 years to return to the top of the new-car sales podium in Australia – and has even rented a ship to help get vehicles into showrooms as quickly as possible to clear a vast backlog of orders.

The Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger – the top two selling vehicles outright for the past six years in a row – are locked in a head-to-head battle for top honours in 2023.

And the Toyota HiLux’s seven-year winning streak as Australia’s top-selling vehicle outright is now under serious threat.

While the Toyota HiLux currently leads the year-to-date sales tally, both brands have swapped places a number of times over the past nine months.

The latest sales figures – released this week by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries – show the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger are separated by a narrow margin of approximately 1200 sales with three months of the year remaining (44,301 versus 43,073).

The Toyota HiLux tally for September 2023 (5776) was up 11.7 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The Ford Ranger tally for September 2023 (5429) was up 11.0 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Industry analysts say the full-year result could go either way.

The sales and marketing boss of Toyota Australia, Sean Hanley, has previously told Drive victory will go to whoever can get sufficient supply of vehicles out of their respective factories.

The boss of Ford Australia, Andrew Birkic, says the sales crown will come down to who can get cars onto docks in Australia, following years of production slowdowns and months of shipping bottlenecks.

But Ford has an ace up its sleeve.

Last month Ford announced it had signed a long term rental of a ship – to minimise the risk of delays at Australian ports when car-carrying vessels are put into quarantine due to biosecurity threats.

Ford’s independently-operated ship is less likely to get held up by bio-security delays because it is not sharing the vessel with cars from rival companies which may need to be held in quarantine to eradicate pests, bugs, and seeds that threaten the Australian environment.

This logistics move is expected to deliver Ford a tactical advantage during the countdown to the end of 2023.

The last time a Ford vehicle topped the Australian new car sales charts was 28 years ago, in 1995, when the Ford Falcon notched up its fifth year in a row as the nation’s favourite car – before the Holden Commodore commenced its record 15-year winning streak.

If the Ford Ranger doesn’t knock off the Toyota HiLux this year, it may end up with a consolation prize.

Although it is industry practice to rank car sales by nameplate, the Ford Ranger is currently on track to become Australia’s top-selling four-wheel-drive vehicle this year.

Although it doesn’t carry the same kudos as outright sales honours, the Ford Ranger 4×4 has outsold the Toyota HiLux 4×4 for three of the past four years (2019, 2020 and 2021) and has a decent lead going into the final three months of 2023 (38,953 versus 34,876 sales year-to-date).

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