Sedans were once THE mainstream car on Australian roads, but now a group of drivers have become a rare sight: here’s what happened
Sedans were once the best-selling cars in Australia, but are now a very small minority group on the road.
Of the 100 most popular vehicles sold between January and November, only 11 were available as sedans, according to Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data provided to Daily Mail Australia.
Traditional passenger cars with lower ground clearance don’t even make the top ten in a country where Australian-made six-cylinder Holden and Ford sedans dominated the sales charts for decades.
SUVs now make up the majority of new orders.
Ford, Nissan and Mitsubishi no longer offer sedans in their ranges as the declining number of passenger car buyers prefer a hatchback.
Intriguingly, the sedans being followed are increasingly all-electric, performance or prestige models.
When it came to the most popular car available as a sedan, the Hyundai i30 ranked 11th, but the hatchback is much more popular with 15,271 units ordered compared to 4,308 sedans.
The Toyota Corolla – Australia’s best-selling car in 2013, 2014 and 2015 – ranked 13th.
Cars like this were once a common sight on Australian roads, but not anymore
The all-electric Tesla Model 3 ranked 14th as the best-selling sedan-only car after ranking in the monthly top ten in January and February
But the number of hatchbacks was more than sold out: 13,742 units left the showroom, compared to 4,356 for the sedan.
The all-electric Tesla Model 3 ranked 14th as the best-selling sedan-only car, with 16,506 units sold, after being in the monthly top ten in January and February.
Available only as a sedan in Australia, the Toyota Camry came in at number 32 with 9,269 sales for a model that was Australia’s most popular mid-size car for three decades – including a long stint as a locally made car until 2017.
The Mazda3 was 34th on the list for a hatchback and sedan model that became Australia’s first ever fully imported car to top the annual sales chart in 2011, and also took that crown in 2012.
The hatchback was much more popular with 5,978 units sold, compared to 2,536 for the sedan.
The Kia Cerato, another small car sold as a hatchback or sedan, came in at number 62, but the ratio between the two body styles was more balanced.
So far this year, 2,790 hatchbacks have been sold, compared to 2,360 sedans.
The smaller Mazda2, also available as a hatchback or sedan, ranked 65th.
There was a huge difference in popularity between the body styles, with 4,321 hatchbacks sold compared to just 534 sedans.
After that, the only sedans in the top 100 were prestige cars, which interestingly had a more popular body style than the hatchback or wagon.
The BMW 3 Series was in 88th place, with 2,633 sedans were sold, compared to just 325 for the ‘Touring’ wagon.
This was followed by the Audi A3 in 89th place, with 1,627 sedans sold, compared to 1,321 for the ‘Sportback’ hatch.
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class came in at number 98 with 2,521 sedans sold, well ahead of the coupe’s 667 and 108 convertible sales.
This was just ahead of the Subaru WRX, a high-performance turbo sports car in 99th place.
The sedan was by far the better seller with 1,943 sales, compared to 554 for the wagon.
The powerful WRX had many more sales than the 286 units of the Impreza sedan.
The Mazda3 was 34th on the list for a hatchback and sedan model that became Australia’s first ever fully imported car to top the annual sales chart in 2011 and also took that crown in 2012.
The BMW 3-Series ranked 88th, for a model available as a sedan or ‘Touring’ wagon
A car available as a sedan has not been Australia’s annual bestseller since the Toyota HiLux replaced the Toyota Corolla at number 1 in 2016.
The Holden Commodore was Australia’s best-selling car continuously from 1996 to 2010 – the year in which a locally produced car last held the top spot.
Going back three decades, the Ford Falcon was number 1 in 1993 and 1995, in an era when Ford and Holden battled fiercely for market supremacy with offerings of six-cylinder or V8 power.
In 2023, the battle is now between the Toyota HiLux and the Ford Ranger.
Ford, once synonymous with the large family sedan, no longer even has a sedan in its range.
Nissan and Mitsubishi have done the same, having previously produced mid-size sedans in Australia.
Only 17.4 percent of cars sold so far in 2023 were passenger cars, including sedans, with only 195,116 sold out of 1,118,236.
By comparison, 56 percent of the 627,187 cars or trucks sold were SUVs.
This broad category, from large four-wheel drive vehicles such as the Toyota LandCruiser to small hatchbacks with higher ground clearance, such as the MINI Countryman, has seen sales almost double in the past decade.
In 2000, only 100,000 SUVs were sold in Australia, compared to more than 550,000 passenger cars.
The Subaru WRX, a powerful turbo sports car that is also available as a station wagon, ranked 99th
The broad SUV category, which includes large four-wheel drive vehicles to small hatchbacks with higher ground clearance, has nearly doubled its popularity in the past decade
Sedans sold in Australia are now more likely to be a prestige, performance or all-electric model: 2,058 for the all-electric Polestar2, 1,794 for the Kia Stinger, 1,610 for the Lexus ES, 794 for the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupé, 566 for the Hyundai Ioniq 6, 566 for the Audi A4, 435 for the BMW 5 Series, 388 for the fully electric Mercedes-Benz EQE, 381 for the Mercedes-Benz E Class, 374 for the fully electric Porsche Taycan, 304 for the Audi e-tron GT, 289 for the BMW i4, 142 for the Audi A6 and 133 for the Volvo S60.
Of the previously more mainstream models, the Mazda6 sold 955 sedans, but its competitors had much weaker sales volumes than much more expensive luxury cars, with just 336 for the Skoda Octavia, 296 for the Hyundai Sonata, 270 for the Volkswagen Passat and just 336 for the Skoda Octavia, 296 for the Hyundai Sonata, 270 for the Volkswagen Passat and only 139 for the Honda Accord.
Some prestige sedans didn’t even reach the 100-unit mark with 86 sales for the Peugeot 508 compared to 57 for the Jaguar XF.
The Australian car market sold 400 models and 70 brands in 2023.