Toyota sells five million vehicles in Oz

TOYOTA has sold more than five million vehicles in Australia since the now-dominant Japanese brand officially arrived here in 1959.

The world’s largest car-maker and Australia’s most popular automotive brand this week announced the significant milestone was achieved some time during March, but says it is impossible to determine exactly what date – or to whom – its five millionth vehicle was sold, or even what Toyota model it was.

Of course, while Toyota is Australia’s largest vehicle exporter, it falls well short of both Ford and Holden in terms of both Australian sales and production figures, with 2,728,660 vehicles built by Toyota in Australia.

Ford vehicles have been sold here since 1904 and built here since 1925, when Ford Australia was officially established. While the Falcon celebrates five decades on sale this year, production of the first model (based on a US design) began in August 1959 – the same year Toyota was established here.

While Ford Australia production figures are difficult to obtain, to December 2008 the company had built 3,834,820 (mainly Falcon) vehicles, which includes four years of Territory production but does not include Fords built or sold here before 1959 or since 2009.

Holden, meantime, lays claim to building the first all-Australian model in the 48-215 ‘FX’ Holden at Fishermens Bend in November 1948 and produced its seven millionth vehicle on August 18, 2008 – its 60th anniversary year.

Ford exports are easily eclipsed by Holden, which exported its first cars in 1954 and has shipped more than 800,000 vehicles overseas, with exports accounting for almost half of production in 2008, before its Middle East export program was drastically cut back and US exports were halted last year.

Toyota says it has delivered more than 740,000 examples of its locally built Camry, Toyota’s second best selling model, with a greater number exported to more than 20 destinations.

From top: Toyota Camry, Prado, Hilux,Toyota Australia senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner.

Of course, Toyota’s most popular model is the Corolla, which has racked up 1.1 million sales locally, accounting for more than one in five Toyotas sold here.

Australia was the first export market for the Corolla, as well as the first country outside Japan to build the car, although Toyota admits “this is the subject of a friendly argument with Toyota Motor Sales in the United States”.

Third-best Toyota model in Australia by sales is the LandCruiser nameplate, which has totalled almost 740,000 sales, with the LandCruiser Prado accounting for more than 155,000 of them.

HiLux is next with 650,000 sales, split almost 50/50 between 4x2 models (which first arrived in 1971) and 4x4 versions, which have been sold here since 1980. The HiLux beat Australia’s top-selling car for the past 13 years, Holden’s Commodore, for two months of last year.

In all, Toyota says it has sold 2.9 million passenger cars and 2.1 million commercial vehicles in Australia, where it has sold more than 200,000 vehicles in each of the past six years.

Toyota's local sales have averaged 100,000 a year – up from a modest beginning of just 1275 cars in the first year.

Single-year sales broke the 100,000 mark for the first time in 1983, when Toyota achieved total cumulative sales of one million vehicles here after more than 20 years.

The company took just nine years to sell its second million vehicles in Australia, eight for its third million, less than six years for its fourth million and less than five years for its fifth and final million.

“The true significance of five million sales is that such a large number of Australian families, individuals, businesses, organisations and governments have put their faith in Toyota, our vehicles and our dealer network,” said Toyota Australia senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner.

“We thank them for their loyalty and we can assure every Toyota customer and prospect that we are constantly striving to improve every aspect of our operations.”