Australia’s favourite cars gear up for sales showdown

For the third year in a row, Ford and Toyota are in a gunfight for showroom supremacy, with only a small gap separating the Ranger and HiLux heading into the final two months of the year.

According to October 2025 new car delivery data provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), Toyota delivered 4444 examples of the HiLux last month, beating the Ranger on 4402 deliveries to the top spot.

It’s the fifth monthly sales win for the HiLux this year, and its second back-to-back victory, having topped the best-sellers chart in April, May, July and September.

Heading into November, the two utes are split by just 1195 deliveries so far this year, with the Ford Ranger recording 46,452 deliveries, and the Toyota HiLux sitting on 45,257 deliveries.

The Ford Ranger was the best-selling vehicle in Australia in both 2023 and 2024, though its maiden crown came after an even closer battle late in the year, with the HiLux leading by 389 deliveries (55,968 vs 55,589 for the Ranger) at the end of November. A huge December pushed the Ranger to an annual win with 63,356 deliveries compared to the Toyota’s 61,111.

Toyota’s RAV4 was the third best-seller in October with 4401 deliveries – just one behind the Ranger – however it is effectively out of the year-long sales race with 39,519 examples delivered so far in 2025.

Well behind the RAV4 was the Ford Everest and Hyundai Kona.

The October result comes less than a week before Toyota unveils its new-generation HiLux on November 10, and though the upcoming model will share a large number of parts with the current ute, it’s expected to kickstart local sales even more.

Likewise, Toyota itself has tipped the new-generation RAV4 to potentially be the best-seller in 2026, not only due to demand for the SUV but also for the increasing fragmentation of Australia’s ute market.