Where the Ford Ranger ranks amongst Australia’s best-selling cars since 1997

The Ford Ranger looks set to turn into Australia’s best-selling recent vehicle for 2024, barring a miracle for the Toyota RAV4 which has topped the sales charts in five out of 10 months to date this 12 months.

To the top of October, Ford has delivered 53,119 Rangers (each 4×2 and 4×4) to Australian customers, a rise of virtually eight per cent on the 12 months prior in a market which has grown by just below three per cent.

Last 12 months it broke a Toyota stranglehold which lasted a decade, dating back to the Corolla from 2013 to 2016, after which the Ranger’s arch-rival, the HiLux, between 2017 and 2022.

In ending the 12 months on top, the Ranger also delivered Ford its first end of 12 months win since 1995, when the EF Falcon became the Blue Oval’s sales champion.

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Fast forward to now and the Ranger once more has a likelihood at making history.

If Ford can proceed to deliver Rangers at the identical rate because it has through 2024, it’ll not only eclipse last 12 months’s sales figure but in addition record the best sales for any vehicle since before the Global Financial Crisis.

Even Toyota couldn’t deliver more examples of either the Corolla or HiLux in any single 12 months than what Holden achieved in 2008, when 64,542 Commodores were registered.

On the time, this was a mixture of the brand new VE sedan – best often known as Holden’s ‘billion dollar baby’ – in addition to early versions of the brand new Ute (launched in August 2007) and Sportwagon.

Since 2008, no vehicle has eclipsed what the Commodore managed to attain.

When you count the Ute towards the Commodore’s sales figures, Holden’s large automobile range lost its mantle as Australia’s best-selling vehicle in 2012 to the Mazda 3.

Without including the Ute (technically sold under a unique name but still known as the Commodore), the Mazda overtook it in 2011.

No matter which 12 months you count, no Holden ever sat atop the year-end sales charts again, breaking a streak that dated back to 1997 with the VT, and spanned across VX, VY, VZ and VE generations. The VF, the last Commodore inbuilt Australia, never got to complete on top.

Nevertheless, unless a miracle occurs in November and December, it’s unlikely the Ranger will reach the heights of the Commodore’s popularity, equivalent to in 2003 when the VY (and its related Ute and Crewman) recorded an enormous 103,764 deliveries – believed to be an all-time high.

It seems unlikely the Ranger will meet the Commodore’s peak market share of 12.5 per cent (set in 2001 with the VX), with Ford’s ute currently accounting for about five per cent of all recent vehicle sales.

Note: Commodore sales from 1997 to 2002 include Commodore Utility. 2003 to 2011 included the Holden Ute, One Tonner and Crewman, where applicable. Without combining these, the Mazda 3 was the best-seller in 2011 with 41,429 sales.