The Ford Ranger appears to be like set to change into Australia’s best-selling new automobile for 2024, barring a miracle for the Toyota RAV4 which has topped the gross sales charts in 5 out of 10 months to date this 12 months.
To the tip of October, Ford has delivered 53,119 Rangers (each 4×2 and 4×4) to Australian clients, a rise of virtually eight per cent on the 12 months prior in a market which has grown by slightly below three per cent.
Final 12 months it broke a Toyota stranglehold which lasted a decade, relationship again to the Corolla from 2013 to 2016, after which the Ranger’s arch-rival, the HiLux, between 2017 and 2022.
In ending the 12 months on high, the Ranger additionally delivered Ford its first finish of 12 months win since 1995, when the EF Falcon grew to become the Blue Oval’s gross sales champion.
100s of recent automobile offers can be found by CarExpert proper now. Get the consultants in your aspect and rating an ideal deal. Browse now.
Quick ahead to now and the Ranger as soon as once more has an opportunity at making historical past.
If Ford can proceed to ship Rangers on the similar charge because it has by 2024, it’ll not solely eclipse final 12 months’s gross sales determine but in addition file the very best gross sales for any automobile since earlier than the International Monetary Disaster.
Even Toyota couldn’t ship extra examples of both the Corolla or HiLux in any single 12 months than what Holden achieved in 2008, when 64,542 Commodores had been registered.
On the time, this was a mixture of the brand new VE sedan – greatest often called Holden’s ‘billion greenback child’ – in addition to early variations of the brand new Ute (launched in August 2007) and Sportwagon.
Since 2008, no automobile has eclipsed what the Commodore managed to realize.
In case you rely the Ute in direction of the Commodore’s gross sales figures, Holden’s giant automobile vary misplaced its mantle as Australia’s best-selling automobile in 2012 to the Mazda 3.
With out together with the Ute (technically offered beneath a special title however nonetheless known as the Commodore), the Mazda overtook it in 2011.
No matter which 12 months you rely, no Holden ever sat atop the year-end gross sales charts once more, breaking a streak that dated again to 1997 with the VT, and spanned throughout VX, VY, VZ and VE generations. The VF, the final Commodore in-built Australia, by no means acquired to complete on high.
Nevertheless, until a miracle happens in November and December, it’s unlikely the Ranger will attain the heights of the Commodore’s recognition, corresponding to in 2003 when the VY (and its associated Ute and Crewman) recorded an enormous 103,764 deliveries – believed to be an all-time excessive.
It appears unlikely the Ranger will meet the Commodore’s peak market share of 12.5 per cent (set in 2001 with the VX), with Ford’s ute at the moment accounting for about 5 per cent of all new automobile gross sales.
Word: Commodore gross sales from 1997 to 2002 embody Commodore Utility. 2003 to 2011 included the Holden Ute, One Tonner and Crewman, the place relevant. With out combining these, the Mazda 3 was the best-seller in 2011 with 41,429 gross sales.
MORE: VFACTS October 2024: Toyota RAV4 nonetheless on high as HiLux closes hole to Ranger
