The Ford Ranger remained both the top new commercial vehicle model and the top model overall for the fourth consecutive year.
The model saw a total of 9904 registrations in 2018, up 484 units compared to 2017.
The Toyota Hilux came in second with 8086 registrations, also up on 2017 volumes by 980 units.
The Toyota Corolla was the third highest selling model for the year with 7300 registrations.
Overall, there were 161,519 new vehicles registered during 2018 – a record setting effort, with the market 1% up on the previous year.
The latest Motor Industry Association (MIA) figures show that’s 1648 registrations above 2017’s overall result and the fifth year in a row of increases.
However, December 2018 was down 3.6% or 420 units on December 2017.
“Given current global economic factors, distributor expectations for 2019 indicate a softening of the market. Further steady growth in the new vehicle sector above 2018 outturn is not expected.” MIA chief executive David Crawford says.
In terms of vehicle segmentation, the top two segments for the year were SUV medium vehicles with 17% share (27,162 units) followed by the Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4×4 segment with 15% (23,870 units).
SUV compact and SUV large round out the top four spots with 13% and 12% each of the market with the small vehicle segment filling fifth place with 10% of the market.
In December, Toyota remained the overall market leader with 26% market share (2900 units), followed by Holden with 9% (1012 units) and Mitsubishi with 8% market share (909 units).
Toyota was also the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with a massive 28% market share (2175 units) followed by Holden with 10% (772 units) closely followed by Mazda with 9% market share (712 units).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (732) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (515) and the Toyota Highlander (325 units).
The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 17% share (604 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux also with 17% share (588 units), followed by the Mitsubishi Triton with 12% (405 units).
