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With the growing number of car brands in Australia, it can be tricky to recognise them all, let alone to know which model is the most – and least – popular for each brand.
An analysis of VFACTS January sales data released earlier this month has revealed the hottest models in each car brand – with a handful of models outselling up to 20 other cars offered by some brands.
The data also revealed some brands continued to offer cars no one bought in the month.
Of the 57 car brands selling passenger, SUV and light commercial vehicles in Australia, 11 recorded zero sales of their least popular models.
These included some marques which only offered two or three models in total – for example Lotus, Jaguar and Rolls-Royce – but also some that had anywhere between 10 and 20 other models available including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagon.
Some of these models have been recently discontinued, such as the Jaguar F-Type, however they are still captured in the data as some stock remains.
The following chart shows the marques which sold more than 1000 cars in the month, and breaks down the number of each model offered. It's clear from this that the majority of the best performing marques saw three or four models outperform the rest by quite a large margin.
The only outlier here was Isuzu Utes which only offered two models – the D-Max and the MU-X – which took a fairly even split of sales; 1798 and 1131 respectively.
Some brands where the worst performing models sold fewer than 10 examples in the month also saw their best-performing cars take lion's share of sales.
Suzuki was the the most extreme example of this, its best-selling Jimny (which has garnered a cult following in recent years) took almost 63 per cent – or 570 – of the brand's total 908 monthly sales. The marque's worst-selling Fronx, represented just 0.2 per cent of sales – only two of them found homes in January. Suzuki's second-best seller, the Swift, took more than 27 per cent of sales (248), leaving the marque's three other models (Ignis, Vitara, and S-Cross) trailing behind at 4.5, 3.6 and 1.5 per cent of sales respectively.
It's worth noting that the Ignis and the S-Cross have recently ceased production in Australia due to updated safety standards. The Vitara was also taken off the Aussie market last year for safety reasons, however an updated version has recently been released.
Though Ford's least popular car still managed to sell 63 examples in January, it still only made up about 1 per cent of Ford's total sales. This is owing to its best performing Ranger taking a whopping 56 per cent of the marque's total sales.
The only other Ford to make a decent showing in January was the Everest – taking 31 per cent (1,913) of the brand's total sales. Ford's other three models each accounted for less than 6 per cent of total monthly purchases.
Of the car brands offering more that 10 models, just one – BYD – sold more than eight of its most popular model. The BYD Sealion 5 was the brand's worst performing in terms of sales, but it still attracted 161 buyers in January.
The chart below shows every brand's best and worst selling models, along with the combined number of sales of other models offered by each in January. Hover or tap on each section to see the percentage breakdown.
Jemimah is Drive's Consumer Editor. She has more than a decade of editorial experience and has previously worked in property and lifestyle journalism for Domain, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and REA Group, among many other publications.
