VFACTS September: Swapsies at the top as the market surges

The Australian new-car market has maintained its momentum and posted the second-strongest September on record, with the Toyota HiLux reclaiming top spot from the Ford Ranger as the most popular model.

Australia is barrelling towards one of its strongest years on record for new-car registrations, and it’s still being led by two models.

The Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger continue to slug it out at the top of the tables with the former coming out on top in September, with 5017 sales compared to the latter’s 4867 – well clear of the Ford Everest in third (2558).

Based on sheer volume, the Tesla Model Y would have technically finished third with 3927 units sold, however Tesla (and Polestar) doesn’t submit its sales data to the FCAI for inclusion in its monthly and annual VFACTS reports.

Fourth went to the Toyota RAV4 (2554) which was followed by the increasingly consistent Chery Tiggo 4 (2048) in fifth.

Places six-through-10 were occupied by the Isuzu D-MAX (1989), BYD Sealion 7 (1887), Toyota Prado (1885), GWM Haval Jolion (1881) and Hyundai Kona (1844) in that order.

And the best-selling brands?

Toyota was again cemented at the top with 18,318 monthly sales compared to Ford’s 8300, Kia’s 7330, Mazda’s 7034 and Hyundai’s 6501 – see the bottom of this report for the top 10 models and brands.

Petrol is still the preferred fuel type over diesel, hybrid, battery-electric and plug-in hybrid while SUVs continue their reign over all the other vehicle classes; SUVs and light commercials were the only classes to post positive growth whereas passenger sales took a 10.4 per cent hit, to be down 24 per cent year-on-year.

The exceptional September means that, by VFACTS figures, the Aussie market is just 1.4 per cent behind the 2024 YTD total.

Factor in Tesla and Polestar’s numbers and that marginal deficit becomes a 0.7 per cent increase – thanks primarily to the stellar ninth months that was up seven per cent over the same period last year (all brands included).

Best-selling models of September 2025

Best-selling brands of September 2025

* Data sourced from VFACTS