The proliferation of small and midsize SUVs has completely changed the car-buying habits of Australians who have fallen out of favor with modest hatchbacks and compact sedans.
Small car sales have plummeted 67% in Australia over the past decade, while their overall market share has fallen from 23.4% to just 8.2%.
The number of nameplates in the mix has halved to 22, and the number of brands competing there has been cut by a third to 17.
When we talk about small cars, what do we mean? Our definition is taken from the Australian new car sales database VFACTS, published by the highest body of automotive brands, FCAI.
Small cars sit between light and midsize cars, and are set apart from small and midsize SUVs for greater ride height.
Everyone knows the top small cars, including nameplates mainly like Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, hyundai i30, Honda Civic And volkswagen golf course.
VFACTS data divides the small car market into two parts based on price, with luxury options like Mercedes-Benz A-Class And audi a3 in their own sub-segment.
We combined all the small cars into one, to really show how far these vehicles have come down in just 10 years.
In 2013, compact cars were the most popular car type, accounting for 23.4% of the total new car market (including passenger cars, SUVs and commercials).
Seven of the top 20 nameplates that year were small cars, being Toyota Corolla (1st), Mazda 3 (2nd), Hyundai i30 (4th), Holden Cruze (8th), Ford Focus (12th), Volkswagen Golf (14th), and Honda Civic (20th).
Top 20 models of 2013:
- Toyota Corolla: 43,498 sales
- Mazda 3: 42,082 sales
- Toyota Hilux: 39,931 sales
- hyundai i30: 30,582 sales
- Holden goods: 27,766 sales
- Toyota Camry: 24,860 sales
- Mitsubishi Triton: 24,512 sales
- Cruze motorbike taxi: 24,421 sales
- NISSAN Navara: 24,108 sales
- Ford Ranger: 21,572 sales
- Mazda CX-5: 20,129 sales
- Ford Focus: 19,180 sales
- hyundai ix35: 19,098 sales
- volkswagen golf course: 17,342 sales
- Keep Colorado: 17,203 sales
- TOYOTA RAV4: 16,983 sales
- Mazda2: 15,167 sales
- Toyota Prado: 14,568 sales
- Toyota Yaris: 14,437 sales
- Honda Civic, Ford Territory: 14,261 sales per
Last until 2022 with full data for the past year and small car market share has dropped to a meager 8.2%. The number one segment a decade ago is now the number five segment – behind 4×4 cars, midsize SUVs, small SUVs and full-size SUVs.
Only three small cars make the top 20 for 2022: Toyota Corolla (6th), Hyundai i30 (9th) and Kia Cerato (the 19th).
Top 20 models of 2022:
- Toyota Hilux: 64,391 sales
- Ford Ranger: 47,479 sales
- TOYOTA RAV4: 34,845 sales
- Mitsubishi Triton: 27,436 sales
- Mazda CX-5: 27,062 sales
- Toyota Corolla: 25,284
- Isuzu D-Max: 24,336 sales
- MGZS: 22,466 sales
- hyundai i30: 21,166 sales
- Toyota Prado: 21,102 sales
- Mitsubishi Outlander: 19,546 sales
- other car: 18,792 sales
- Hyundai Tucson: 17,870 sales
- Grade 3: 16,168 sales
- Mazda CX-30: 13,891 sales
- wagon Toyota LandCruiser: 13,152 sales
- Mazda BT-50: 12,937 sales
- Toyota Kluger: 12,562 sales
- Kia Cerato: 12,354 sales
- Mazda CX-3: 11,907 sales
This table shows the steady decline of small cars in both sales and market share.
