Where have all the popular nameplates gone?

They were the staples of our roads, but the popular sedans, wagons and hatchbacks that once filled Aussie driveways are now a dead or dying breed.

Just as we’ve shoved aside Powderfinger, cargo pants and flip phones, our taste in cars has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades.

The Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus are the latest in a long line of popular nameplates to disappear from a new-car market where SUVs – or off-road wagons, as they were once known – are no longer niche but now the main game.

The Focus and Fiesta are just the latest of dozens of once-popular nameplates that have been swamped in a rapidly evolving Aussie new-car market.

Of the top 10 most popular models from the year 2000, only three are still on sale: the Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla and Toyota HiLux.

And of the top 10 selling cars from 2010, half of them have since disappeared from showrooms.

No surprises that the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore are two of the nameplates to have succumbed to the seismic market shift, but others include the Nissan Pulsar, Mitsubishi Magna, Mitsubishi Lancer and Subaru Liberty.

Here are some of the once-loved automotive nameplates that have made way for relative newcomers such as the Mazda CX-5, MG ZS, Toyota CH-R and Tesla Model 3.

It’s the car that defined Ford Australia and was regularly a top seller, albeit with hiccups along the way (remember the buck-toothed AU?). Amid the downsizing and SUV surge, the Falcon was gobbled up and spat out – especially by the fleets and governments that once supported them.

Once marketed as ‘Laser the amazer’, the little Ford was a small-car hit of the 1980s before it was replaced by the Focus in the early 2000s.

European DNA in a city-friendly hatch was long the sales pitch for the Fiesta (which later in its life also spawned a sedan sibling), but the life has been sucked out of the segment it once played in. Even as a loveable hot hatch that traced its lineage back to the 1981 Fiesta XR2, the Fiesta ST was in the end outsold by the Porsche 911.

It lasted for 20 years in Australia, but the Ford Focus never found the love of the Laser it replaced. Competent, yes, but it was constantly overshadowed in the sales race by the Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 and Holden Astra.

Big, opulent and loaded with luxury, the Falcon-based Fairlane and LTD sedans were once the cars for execs and company bosses. But the rise of European luxury brands spelt the end for the locally-made long-wheelbase limo.

The Ford Mondeo wasn’t quite as unloved as the Ford Taurus (remember that!?) but it wasn’t far off. The Euro-sourced mid-sizer lived in the shadow of the Falcon and received the sort of marketing attention you might expect from a company trying to protect its local heroes. The result was predictable.

Arguably Holden’s most iconic nameplate, the Commodore was eventually put out to pasture after 42 years in 2020. The Commodore badge graced some of the best Aussie cars ever made, and it made a valiant effort to go global in its final decade. But waning local interest saw production end in 2017, before an imported model ironically replaced it until GM axed Holden itself.

Big, glossy and loaded with chrome, the largest locally-made Holdens made a big impact for decades. But along with the Commodores they were based on, Aussies’ love for the long-wheelbase Statie and Caprice subsided as buyers gravitated to more compelling luxury offerings from overseas.

From beep-beep to big business, the Barina was loved by many first-car buyers who wanted something cheap and cheerful. Early versions were good to drive, although sourcing later models from Daewoo soured the nameplate.

Back in the days when Holden imported vehicles from its European division, there was lots of local love for Opel cars and the Astra was among them. OK, so Astras could cost owners plenty after a few years, but as new cars they were the small car to beat in the early 2000s.

In some ways the Vectra was Holden’s four-cylinder insurance for those who didn’t want a Commodore. It had European DNA and was even briefly manufactured here, but lacked the size and gravitas that Aussies wanted. And the shift to cheaper Asian alternatives eventually saw the end for the Vectra.

Formerly the pinnacle of Honda engineering, the Legend was also a genuinely luxurious car that offered loads of features at a palatable price. But when Honda priced it directly against more fancied German sedans, that was the end for the large four-door flagship.

Sporty to look at and fun to drive, the Honda Integra was a hit with enthusiasts, especially in hard-core Type R guise. But along with umpteen other Japanese sports cars, it was shown the door by buyers increasingly looking for more.

There was always a futuristic look and feel to the larger of Honda’s affordable sports cars. But unfortunately the Japanese car-maker didn’t look far enough into the future to predict the decline in demand for two-door cars.

Once the $13,990 drive-away screamer, the lollipop-coloured Hyundai Excel was the car that introduced tens of thousands of Aussies to the budget Korean brand. It was even once (briefly) a top-seller. Since then, Hyundai has grown up and its emphasis on price has fizzled out.

Like the Excel, the Hyundai Getz was all about the price. It was a strategy that worked and contributed to the growth of Hyundai. But the Getz was eventually replaced by the i20 as Hyundai’s naming strategy got more formal.

OK, so it was succeeded by the RX-8, but it was the RX-7 that stamped rotaries on the global sports car map. And while there have been rumours and promises for more than a decade, a true RX rotary coupe (rather than the range-extender hybrid we’ll apparently see in 2023) seems no closer.

It formed the basis of some of the world’s best rally cars – known as Evolution, or Evo, models – and was also a hugely popular small car that even led to a sporty two-door spinoff that was popular with young drivers. But the Mitsubishi Lancer was shunted aside as the small car pie began to crumble.

It was the grown-up replacement to the Sigma that was supposed to take the fight to the locally-made Fords and Holdens. And while the Magna often performed well in independent tests (it twice won Wheels Car of the Year), it never got close to challenging the Big Two for sales. The 380 missed the mark on safety and was swiftly killed off soon after going on sale.

It was produced in Australia until 1994 and still maintained a strong presence as an imported model… until someone decided the thoroughly underwhelming Tiida was a better bet. Aussies quickly saw through it and despite a brief comeback the Pulsar was in its death throes, not helped by a changing market dynamic.

Known as the Legacy overseas but renamed locally at the request of the RSL, the Liberty was in some ways the thinking person’s family car. But the rise of the SUV put intense pressure on mid-sizers and the Liberty joined many others on the discard pile. The spirit of the Liberty lives on in the Outback, in wagon form at least.

Toyota has aimed to lead in every market segment it competed in Down Under since the 1980s and it usually succeeded – or got close trying – but with one notable exception: large cars. The Avalon and, later, the Aurion, were aimed at tackling the Falcon and Commodore head-on. They never came close.

It was the pin-up car of the hybrid revolution, teaming tech and futuristic styling with a fuel-sipping petrol-electric drivetrain. But the Prius hatchback is no longer, gobbled up by the success of other more mainstream hybrids within the Toyota family.

There were hits and misses with the Toyota Celica. The ones that used Camry running gear were predictably unloved and quickly linked to hairdressers. The ones with zingy engines and/or a rally lineage were the stuff of legends. But the world fell out of love with having to cram kids into tiny back seats.

The Mid-engined, Rear-drive 2-seater (which inspired the name) had the bones of a true sports car; the engine sat behind the two occupants and drove the rear wheels. Designers even tried to copy the best (early iterations had whiffs of Ferrari while the final edition looked suspiciously like the Porsche Boxster). But slowing sales led to its demise.

Related: Ford Fiesta and Focus axed

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