2025 saw the tip of a handful of long-running nameplates, but you’ll still see a few of them around… form of.
The Toyota Supra, for instance, will still be seen on racetracks; the Hyundai i30 Hatch can still be bought in hot N guise; and the Mazda 6 is being replaced by a vehicle called the 6e, so only one letter off.
A handful of premium models are shuffling off for good, though: the Audi S8 and Volvo S60 and V60 Cross Country.
Audi S8
Orders for the last surviving member of Audi’s full-size limousine range in Australia closed in July, though on the time of writing the sporty S8 stays on the brand’s website.
The S8 was the last member of the A8 family standing within the Australian market, marrying the short-wheelbase body style with a twin-turbo petrol V8 engine and featuring some subtly sporty design cues.
Audi also closed orders for the A7 Sportback, though it lives on in Australia in hot twin-turbo V8-powered RS7 guise.
The upper end of Audi’s passenger automobile range goes through upheaval. There’s a brand new generation of A6 Sedan and Avant, plus the similarly sized electric A6 e-tron and A6 Avant e-tron, but none of those have been confirmed for Australia.
While these latest models have a few years ahead of them in markets like Europe, the A8 and S8’s future is looking uncertain. They’re because of exit production by the tip of 2026.
The present fourth-generation A8 and S8 entered production late in 2017, which suggests they’re near a decade old now, and yet no alternative has been announced, combustion-powered or otherwise.
Hyundai i30 Hatch
The Hyundai i30 nameplate lives on for 2026, but if you happen to need a hatchback you now have to step as much as the high-performance i30 N hot hatch following the tip of production for the core i30 Hatch lineup in December.
That brings an end to regular i30 Hatch models in Australia after almost 20 years, though they’ll proceed to be produced in Czechia for markets like Europe.
Hyundai Australia switched to sourcing the regular i30 Hatch from Czechia last yr (the recent N already got here from there) following the tip of Korean production.
While that allowed Hyundai to supply a significantly more efficient turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol powertrain, it also forced up the worth of importing the small hatch.
Perhaps for this reason, Hyundai selected to only bring well-specified N Line and N Line Premium trim levels, though they were still $3500 to $3700 pricier than the variants they replaced, while the bottom price of the lineup soared by $12,000.
Hyundai combines sales figures for the i30 Hatch and i30 Sedan in monthly VFACTS sales reports, despite the latter – known elsewhere because the Avante or Elantra – being a bigger vehicle based on a unique platform. The corporate has previously confirmed hatchbacks accounted for 80 per cent of i30 sales prior to the change of sourcing.
It’s unclear how much the move to a pricier, Czech-sourced model hurt the i30 Hatch, though with overall i30 deliveries down 13.2 per cent this yr to the tip of November 30, it’s clear some damage was dealt.
Mazda 6
Technically, in 2026 you’ll have the ability to get something called a Mazda 6 in local showrooms. But look closely and also you’ll see a bit of ‘e’ after that 6, after which take a great look and also you’ll see it’s a drastically different vehicle.
That’s because the brand new Mazda 6e is a revised version of the Deepal L07, a Chinese electric liftback.
Mazda has been step by step retiring its homegrown Mazda 6 globally, with Australia being one among the last markets it was still on sale. It stays on tariffs in a handful of markets similar to Thailand and Vietnam, however it’s surely running out of runway given it entered production all the best way back in 2012.
What finally felled the shapely sedan and wagon in Australia was Australian Design Rule 98/00, a brand new regulation mandating autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems that meet specific technical requirements across all latest vehicles on sale.
While it had received quite a few updates here since 2012, the Mazda 6 was showing its age. Nevertheless, it plugged on at the same time as rival brands like Ford, Kia and Subaru exited the segment, though it was long a distant second to the top-selling Toyota Camry and in recent times was overtaken by the BYD Seal.
Now, Mazda has a Seal rival reaching local showrooms, but is ceding the combustion-powered mid-size market to an evaporating pool of competitors headlined by the Camry.
Toyota Supra
The Toyota Supra nameplate lay dormant for 17 years before returning in 2019 on a brand new sports coupe developed with BMW.
Indeed, one of the vital iconic of Japanese sports automobile nameplates found itself on a vehicle that, underneath its shapely skin, was effectively a hard-top BMW Z4. It was even in-built Austria, not Japan.
It was a curious fusion of Japanese and German in an entertaining package. Nissan would follow a really different strategy with its rival Z, launched here in 2023. Despite also having an iconic name and a boosted six-cylinder engine, the most recent Z-car is predicated on an overhauled version of the old 370Z platform.
This simpler, more conventional approach saw the Nissan overtake the Toyota within the sales race, though this yr the Supra has clawed back ground.
Alas, Toyota Australia announced in August it was closing orders. Production of the GR Supra will end in 2026, but you’ll nevertheless be seeing lots of it moving forward. That’s because this Austrian-built, German-derived Japanese sports automobile shall be participating in that almost all Australian of competitions: Supercars.
It’ll subsequently join the Chevrolet Camaro in being a Supercars model that may’t be purchased by customers.
Toyota is on a sports automobile tear for the time being, establishing Gazoo Racing as a bona-fide brand, revealing the GR GT supercar, and teasing the return of the Celica and MR2. One other generation of Supra isn’t outside the realm of possibility, then, at the very least not with petrol-head Akio Toyoda as chairman.
Earlier this yr, Toyota launched a Track Edition with retuned steering and suspension, but Australia has missed out on the Final Edition which pumps out 320kW of power and 570Nm of torque – up 35kW and 70Nm on Australian-market Supras including the Track Edition.
Volvo S60 and V60
After axing the S90 in 2019, and the V90 Cross Country in 2021, Volvo Automobile Australia finally pulled the plug on the slow-selling S60 and V60 Cross Country this yr. The latter stays available overseas in select markets.
The jacked-up V60 Cross Country had arrived here in 2021, replacing the regular V60 wagon. Its more SUV-like styling theoretically must have been more appealing in an SUV-hungry market like ours, but sales actually dropped at first compared with the sleeker V60 it replaced, rising to 195 units in 2023 before falling again.
For context, Volvo sold greater than 12 times as many XC60s that yr than V60 Cross Countrys.
As for the S60, it sold just as poorly as its wagon sibling. Last yr, Volvo Automobile Australia delivered just 153 examples each of the S60 and V60 Cross Country, which saw them outsold by even the oft-overlooked Alfa Romeo Giulia. It’s a good distance from annual tallies of 800-plus units seen through the first and second generations of the S60.
The S60 has suffered from a continued swing away from sedans within the Australian market, which had already claimed the lifetime of the flagship S90.
Volvo has over time develop into heavily depending on its SUV models. And while it launched a brand new passenger automobile this yr within the ES90, this liftback has an SUV-like high-riding stance.
While this latest electric flagship can’t be compared on to the departed V60 Cross Country, it stays to be seen whether it’s sufficiently SUV-like to appeal to buyers. Evidently, the V60 Cross Country wasn’t.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
