Corolla canes Commodore and Falcon

Toyota's Corolla has staged an upset of David-versus-Goliath proportions by outselling every other car on the market -- including the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon -- during the month of September.

It's a significant milestone as a locally built large car has topped the sales charts every month since the Hyundai Excel briefly toppled the Holden-Ford juggernaut in June, 1998. That said, the timing of the Corolla's victory is hardly surprising, given the soaring petrol prices.

The Corolla amassed 4950 sales during September, compared with 4851 for the Commodore and just 3900 for the Falcon. Toyota's Camry (four-cylinder and V6) notched up 3357 sales to place fourth overall.

The overall market continues to motor along at record pace, with 749,347 vehicles finding new homes during the first nine months of this year. If buyers continue to snap up cars and trucks at the same rate during the last quarter, the domestic market is on track to eclipse the million mark for the first time.

In year-to-date terms, most categories have recorded growth compared with 2004, especially the small-car segment, which is up 21.6 per cent. Light cars, prestige cars, medium cars and sports cars are also up, but large cars have plunged by 12.2 per cent.

The total SUV market is up 6.9 per cent over last year, mainly due to huge growth in the medium SUV segment, which has been spurred on by the hot-selling Ford Territory. However, mirroring the passenger-car trends, large SUV sales have slumped by 17.1 per cent.

Toyota has firmly cemented its place as the No 1 brand in Australia, with 151,503 sales against its ledger. Holden is in second place with 133,641 sales, followed by Ford (98,366), Mazda (49,658), Mitsubishi (47,734) and Nissan (44,120).

The dozen best-sellers (excludes commercial vehicles)
1 Toyota Corolla 4950
2 Holden Commodore 4851
3 Ford Falcon 3900
4 Toyota Camry (V6 and 4cyl) 3357
5 Holden Astra 2982
6 Mazda3 2596
7 Nissan Pulsar 1671
8 Ford Territory 1634
9 Hyundai Getz 1605
10 Toyota Echo 1498
11 Hyundai Elantra 1306
12 Honda Accord (including Euro) 1295