RANGER & EVEREST ON TOP

THE Ford Ranger continues to blitz the sales charts and was Australia’s bestselling overall vehicle in March 2024. A total of 5661 new Rangers (4x4 and 4x2) were sold in in March, placing it well ahead of the Toyota Hilux which sold 3995 units. As a result, the Hilux slipped out of the Top 3 on the sales charts, falling behind the Toyota RAV4 (5070 sales) and Tesla Model Y (4379 sales).

Even excluding 4x2 variants, the Ranger remains atop the sales charts with a total of 5135 4x4s sold in March 2024. Specific to the 4x4 charts, it’s followed by Hilux (3555 sales) and Isuzu D-MAX (1847 sales). Year-to-date, the Ranger 4x4 has now outsold Hilux 4x4 by 3320 units (14,240 versus 10,920).

In another tick for the blue oval, Ford’s Everest wagon had a stellar month, selling a total of 2264 units (up 129.8 per cent compared to March 2023). This result made it the best-selling 4x4 wagon for the month, ahead of the Isuzu MU-X (1886) and Toyota Landcruiser 300 Series (1219). And, as Toyota prepares for the launch of its nex-gen Prado, sales of existing Prado stock continues to decline, with only 446 units sold in March 2024.

Zooming in on the budget offerings, GWM’S Ute sold a total of 774 4x4 units, placing it ahead of the LDV T60 (446) and Ssangyong Musso (306).

At the other end of the market, the RAM 1500 (313) just pipped the Chevrolet Silverado (309) and Ford F-150 (238).

The total number of sales for Light Commercial Vehicles landed at 23,061 for the month, which was up 1049 units (+4.8 per cent) versus March 2023. As a result LCVS accounted for 21 per cent share of the total market for March. So far in 2024 the LCV market has a 22.1 per cent share, with 67,426 units sold.

Breaking it down further, 17,629 4x4 utes (PU/CC) were sold in March 2024, up from 16,474 sales in March 2023, for a 16.1 per cent slice of the market.

Across the board, the SUV market is up a whopping 20.7 per cent compared to March 2023; the Passenger Vehicle market is up 2.5 per cent; and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle market is down by 4.1 per cent.

The strength of the market is unprecedented, with the best-ever firstquarter results for new vehicles (January to March) – a total of 304,452 sales, representing an increase of 13.2 per cent versus Q1 2023.

“This is a terrific result for the sector; however, all car brands are well aware that these results cannot be taken for granted,” said FCAI chief executive, Tony Weber. “We need to factor in the ongoing cost of living pressures and the challenges for industry and consumers that will emerge with the introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) in less than nine months.”