The day everything changed in Australia's new car landscape
02/19/2025 01:45 PM
A minor change by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries in 2003 has had a lasting impact on the Australian new car landscape.
Original story by Toby Hagon first published in Drive in 20 February, 2003
Move over four-wheel-drives and all-terrain wagons – SUVs are here to stay.
The body that represents car importers and manufacturers in Australia – the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries – has begun referring to off-road vehicles as 'SUVs', an American term that stands for sport utility vehicles.
"Rather than calling them all-terrain wagons – which was a name we'd thought up years ago – we thought we'd go to the more internationally accepted description, which is SUV," says FCAI chief executive Peter Sturrock.
To Australians, though, they're 4WDs, and will be for a long time yet. Speak to any car company and they'll inevitably call them 4WDs, despite differing internal classifications that range from “recreation vehicles" to "off-roaders", or even the FCAI's old classification, "all-terrain wagons".
Sturrock concedes that the origin of the SUV tag is American, but he does not see that as an issue for Australia. Besides, exactly what to call those often hulking, fuel-sucking machines turned into something of a debate within the industry.
"We didn't want to call them four-wheel-drives. When you've got vehicles like Magnas and Subarus (which drive all four wheels) then you need to somehow differentiate them from LandCruisers and Pajeros," says Sturrock.
There's no reason to fret, though, because the SUV designation is only being used internally in the industry – for now, at least. It appears on the official sales charts, known as VFACTS, which are compiled by the FCAI and posted monthly.
"At the end of the day, it's a score sheet, and whether it's a wide, a leg bye or a no-ball, it all totals up," says Sturrock.
The problem is that media reporting often picks up the FCAI terminology, ultimately bringing an Americanism into the local car market.
It's no secret that the driving culture in Australia is a lot like America's, despite our lust for many European cars and our love of small cars from Asia.
Truth be known, as a driving public, we love big cars with big engines. And with fuel so cheap by worldwide standards, it's perhaps no surprise.
We can only hope that the rest of America’s car culture doesn't descend Down Under.
After all, how would we all cope if we had to take our RVs down to the gas station to pop the hood and empty the trunk? Toby Hagon
How many SUVs are sold in Australia?
Call them what you want, but SUVs are here to stay. Today, SUVs account for almost 57 per cent of the new car market, having easily accounted for traditional passenger cars over the last two decades.
In contrast, passenger cars now make up only 16.7 per cent of the market while light commercial vehicles – which includes dual-cab utes – account for 22.1 per cent.
That's in stark contrast to the new car sales charts of 2003 where passengers cars gobbled up 64.7 per cent of new car sales.
SUVs? A paltry 16.6 per cent. Utes meanwhile, both four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive made up 13.3 per cent of the new car market.
A quick look at the popular models of the time also tells an interesting story and show how much the landscape has changed in the two decades.
The number one selling car of any kind in 2003 was the Holden Commodore (86,553) edging out its arch nemesis Ford Falcon (73,220) with the Toyota Camry (38,540) in third place.
There wasn't a single SUV inside the top 10, with the Toyota Prado (14,639) the number-one selling four-wheel drive in 14th place overall. It edged out the Toyota LandCruiser (14,425), Nissan X-Trail (12,675) and Toyota RAV4 (12,026), the latter way down in 19th place.
The battle of the dual-cab utes was win by the Toyota HiLux (25,883) to claim sixth place overall ahead of the Holden Rodeo (19,226) in ninth spot. The third-best selling dual-cab of 2003 was the Nissan Navara (9483) way down in 25th place overall on the new car sales charts.
Compare that with 2024, the most recent full-year sales data available for Australia. The composition of the top 10 would be almost unrecognisable to someone who had been asleep for the last 21 years.
Australia's most popular new vehicle of 2024 was the Ford Ranger dual-cab with sales of 62,593, the first of three utes in the top 10, Toyota HiLux (53,499) in thid place just ahead of the Isuzu D-Max (30,194) in fourth.
Six SUV's made the top 10, with Toyota's RAV4 (58,718) in second spot, with Mitsubishi Outlander, Ford Everest, Mazda CX-5, MG ZS and Kia Sportage all inside the top 10.
The lone 'traditional' passenger car? The evergreen Toyota Corolla, its 24,027 sales entrenching it in seventh place.
This trend shows no signs of abating any time soon, with SUVs and dual-cabs continuing to dominate the sales charts. It’s a far cry from just 20 years ago when Australians bought big cars with big engines for a big country in big numbers.
The post The day everything changed in Australia's new car landscape appeared first on Drive.
