Seeing fewer of these cars in Australia? You’re not imagining things

New-vehicle buying habits are changing, resulting in the rise of SUVs and utes, and the demise of the type of traditional passenger cars once common on Australian roads.

Once again in 2024, medium SUVs were by far the most popular vehicle of choice, with 287,637 deliveries throughout the year, or 23.2 per cent of the record total of 1,237,287 new vehicle registrations. SUVs as a whole commanded a 56.9 per cent market share with 704,557.

Across the same period, 229,210 utes were delivered, excluding full-sized North American pickups – enough to account for 18.5 per cent of the new vehicle market.

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While the passenger car segment – consisting of traditional sedans, hatchbacks, wagons, coupes and people movers – saw a year-on-year increase over 2023 with 221,937 deliveries, a number of sub-segments experienced decreases which have become increasingly common.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ VFACTS data shows deliveries of micro, light, large, upper large and sports cars plus people movers all decreased from 2023 to 2024, with only the small and medium passenger cars seeing a year-on-year rise.

Reduced demand results in the reduction of available models in any given segment, with carmakers responding to lower sales by offering fewer models and/or variants in increasingly niche parts of the market.

For example, 20 years ago in 2005, there were more than half a dozen large car models for sale in Australia – Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore, Hyundai Sonata V6, Kia Optima, Mitsubishi 380/Magna/Verada, Toyota Avalon and Camry V6 – which together notched up more than 150,000 sales and accounted for more than a quarter of the overall market.

In 2024, the large car segment is largely made up of higher-priced luxury models, with more nameplates on offer but less than 2000 deliveries between them.

While the Toyota Corolla was Australia’s best-selling small car in 2024, its 24,027 deliveries represented a drop of about 20,000 units compared to 2005, when the segment was two-and-a-half times larger.

Across the same period there’s been exponential growth in SUV sales, which just 20 years ago accounted for about 180,000 new vehicle deliveries – at a time when now-popular mid-sized models such as the Toyota RAV4, Nissan X-Trail and Honda CR-V were classified as compact vehicles.

Passenger vehicle sales across the past 20 years

MORE: VFACTS 2024: New vehicle sales hit record high, but slump expected soon