TradeFarmMachinery provides a rundown on the eight best-selling 4WD utes for the first six months of the year
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The 8 best selling utes on the market (First six months of 2018)
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Year-on-year sales of new 4WD utes continues to boom thanks largely to some 5,900 new units being sold in the first half of 2018 compared with the first six months of 2017. That represents a healthy 7.1 per cent increase.
Toyota’s Hilux has squeezed back past Ford’s Ranger into the number-one spot not just in the 4WD ute market but also in the overall 4WD market where dual cabs now outsell the most popular of the 4WD wagons, the Toyota Prado. Some 80 to 90 per cent of utes sold are dual cabs, which reflects the repositioning of utes away from being purely work vehicles.
Against this background of stronger sales not all of the most popular utes are selling better than they did this time last year…
Toyota Hilux
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The Hilux is back as Australia most popular 4WD after its 12-year run at the top 4WD sales charts was broken last year by the Ford Ranger. The Hilux is so popular it’s not just the best-selling 4WD, ute or otherwise, it’s Australia’s best-selling new ‘car’ overall, the only ute to achieve that distinction.
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Ford Ranger
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After knocking off the Hilux last year, the Ranger has been pipped at the post at the halfway point in 2018. But that could soon change with the imminent arrival of a new engine in the Ranger. It’s a more powerful (157kW/500Nm) but very much smaller two-litre four-cylinder option to the current 147kW/470Nm 3.2-litre five-cylinder diesel in best-selling XLT and Wildtrak models.
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Mitsubishi Triton
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Mitsubishi’s Triton is the big mover at the pointy end of the 4WD ute sales chart despite remaining in third place overall and still a long way behind the two runaway leaders in Hilux and Ranger. Still, Triton sales are up nearly 20 per cent without Mitsubishi doing much more than a mild tweak of the model line up
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Holden Colorado
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The Colorado is the highest-ranked of the best selling 4WD utes that has gone backwards in sales in the first six months of 2018 compared with the same time last year. The slower 2018 sales come off the back of a big surge in 2017 with a year-on-year 11.2 per cent slide reversing most of the 2017 gains.
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Nissan Navara
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Recent changes to the Navara D23 haven’t helped it gain any more traction in the market place. In the first six months of 2018 Nissan sold 6,722 Navara 4WDs, some 651 fewer than the same time in 2017.
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Isuzu D-Max
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The D-Max remains the number-six best-selling 4WD ute but it’s gaining ground on the Navara. Some 6,409 D-Max 4WDs were sold in the first six months of 2108, a 6.4 per cent increase on the same period last year. That’s not sufficient to see it climb out of the number-six spot in the year-to-date best sellers but at the same time it’s not far behind the Navara in sales and could pip it by year’s end.
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Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series
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It’s the oldest and most expensive vehicle amongst the best-selling 4WD utes but its year-on-year sales increase is the strongest. What’s more surprising is that its year-on-year sales increase to June 30 is better than any of the other best-selling utes with a 24 per cent increase, despite the fact that it’s the oldest and most expensive ute here.
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Mazda BT-50
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In what as been a booming ute market over the past decade, the BT-50s sales have remained pretty constant since it first arrived in late 2011. In its first full year of sales in 2012, 8,279 BT-50 4WDs were sold while last year 8,900 BT-50 4WDs were sold. But, Mazda’s BT-50 is the third vehicle in the best-selling 4WD utes to suffer a sales decline in the first six months of 2018 compared with the same time last year.
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