These 14 models were axed in Australia this year

It’s been a bumper year of new model releases, but there’s also been an array of vehicles discontinued from the Australian market in 2023.

In fact, there were quite a number of high-profile model names culled from local showrooms or Australian order books over the past 12 months and as such we’ve thrown together a list to detail them and the reason for their departure.

Some of the model axings had been brewing for a while and were not unexpected in their lead-up, whereas others came as a total surprise and a few even blindsided us following previous announcements from their makers.

The core motives behind the bulk of these discontinuations are changing market preferences, evolving manufacturer priorities, slow sales and/or the end of production for a particular model.

But none of the models in this list have an immediate or direct replacement on the way (at least not for Australia) and we’re not including routine generational changeovers here, so all of the following models have been effectively killed off from our market for the foreseeable future.

The third-generation Audi TT has been with us since 2014, continuing the lineage of the German luxury brand’s baby R8 sports car into a new chapter, but it didn’t take too long for rumours and whispers of its demise to spread like wildfire in the wake of slowing sales, as is often the case with sports cars.

Audi stuck by its little two-door sportsters, however, and saw it through to the end of the current model’s lifecycle this year, even though confirmation of its axing was made way back in 2019.

The final examples of the 25-year-old nameplate are arriving in local showrooms now, in the form of the special Final Edition.

Less than 12 months after it pulled the plug on its Focus and Fiesta and their ST hot hatch derivatives, Ford Australia announced it would ditch its Escape mid-size SUV amid slow sales and what it called changing market dynamics.

The Blue Oval brand cited its growing emphasis on and consumer demand for electrified vehicles (it will release the pint-size Puma EV here next year to go with its Mustang Mach-E electric fastback and its only other remaining SUV, the Everest) as reasons for the Escape’s axing – despite the long-awaited arrival of a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) variant.

Lacklustre sales were never directly mentioned by Ford, but the fact is the Escape was never as popular the Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, MG HS, Subaru Forester, Honda CR-V, Nissan X-TRAIL, Volkswagen Tiguan or even the Haval H6, so final stocks are now being delivered.

The same can’t be said for the Kia Rio, which was comfortably one of the best-selling models in the light-car segment for years, with its retirement being forced by the lack of a right-hand drive replacement.

Kia Australia confirmed to carsales in February that a new-generation Rio successor would only be produced in left-hand drive and was therefore ruled out for our market by default.

This particular retirement was preceded by the local axing of the top-spec GT-Line grade four months prior in an effort to free-up engine supply for the closely related Kia Stonic GT-Line light SUV.

The Kia Stinger was herald as the saviour of the affordable rear-drive sports sedan when it was launched around the same time the homegrown Holden Commodore was nixed and it served that role well, with more than 90 per cent of all local sales being the fully-loaded GT.

Rumours of its demise had been swirling for years, however, as Kia and the wider Hyundai Motor Group eyed a rapid expansion of their battery-electric endeavours, with the EV6 GT crossover ultimately taking over as the brand’s new performance hero.

Order books for the Stinger closed officially in March.

Mazda Australia’s announcement that it would retire the CX-8 and MX-30 was one of the bigger shocks of the year, given the Japanese brand had insisted the future of both models was safe in our market only a few months prior.

The company says both models are being shown the door to free-up room in its model range and showrooms for myriad upcoming electrification projects, even though the slow-selling Mazda MX-30 is its one and only EV to date. Order books for both models will close early in 2024.

Of course, Mazda also dumped the CX-9 after saying it wouldn’t do that either earlier this year, with final examples of the popular large SUV now leaving dealerships. However, the big seven-seat SUV will have a direct replacement in the form of the upcoming CX-80, which (perhaps along with the new CX-70) will join the smaller CX-60 and larger CX-90 on sale next year.

Less of a shock was the local axing of the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, given the Australian range comprised just one variant that was outsold by its A-Class sibling by more than 16 times in the first half of 2023.

Slow sales and low stock levels of the compact luxury people-mover meant the B-Class was essentially unavailable from the moment Mercedes-Benz made the announcement, save for a handful of dealer demonstrators that have now been moved on.

The original Mercedes-Benz CLS spawned the four-door ‘coupe’ craze that now includes the Audi A7 Sportback, BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe and Porsche Panamera, but this year it was forced out of the Australian range by the new EQE electric sedan.

The CLS was always just a swoopy E-Class and so the emergence of the more aerodynamic EQE seemingly created some conflict in showrooms with the sleek internal combustion model.

With Mercedes-Benz going gung-ho on electrification, the petrol-powered CLS didn’t stand much of a chance, especially given its narrow variant line-up and low sales volume.

The RAM 1500 TRX shot to fame as the world’s quickest and most powerful pick-up truck to date, but in late August it was announced that the super-ute was being retired – at least as we know it.

RAM top brass have said the TRX name will likely live on in another form, suggesting the next chapter of the Stellantis truck brand’s full-size performance pick-up will be electrified and possibly not even a traditional 1500.

The 523kW/882Nm monster dual-cab is being sent off with a limited-run ‘Final Edition’ due in Australia sometime next year.

Two of the highest-profile official model axings this year were the Tesla Model S and Model X, which have been unavailable to order in Australia since 2021 anyway.

After years of speculation, Tesla finally confirmed in May that its flagship electric sedan and SUV would no longer be produced in right-hand drive and that patiently waiting customers would be refunded their deposits in full.

The production change co-incided with a major model update for the pair and release of the high-performance Plaid versions in other markets.

It’s no secret that Volkswagen Australia is going big on EVs from next year – so big, in fact, that it axed the Passat (sedan and wagon), the flagship Arteon four-door coupe and the Golf Wagon to make room for its inbound ID.3, ID.4, ID.5 and ID. Buzz electric models from mid-2024.

Volkswagen Australia says it will release 10 new models including five fresh vans in 2024, as well five EVs by 2025 that will make it the nation’s “biggest provider of zero-emissions mobility”.

But this year it also canned the diesel versions of the Tiguan and manual variants of the Polo and Golf hatchbacks.

Just because a model is discontinued in one market it doesn’t mean it’s axed globally – there are plenty of models that have been missing from Australia for a while but are only now coming to the end of their production runs.

Some of these include the Chevrolet Camaro and Chrysler 300C muscle cars and the Audi R8 supercar.

Other models like the Honda e electric hatch and Nissan Titan pick-up simply never came to Australia but were dearly hankered after locally, while others like the Suzuki Baleno and Toyota Prius were axed last year but residual stocks didn’t disappear from showrooms until 2023.

Related: Top 16 popular performance cars axed in the past decade

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