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Ute sales drop in 2014

The Toyota HiLux has claimed the title of top-selling ute once again, but sales figures for 2014 show the shine appears to be wearing off the light commercial vehicle segment as the mining boom winds down.


The Toyota HiLux rustled up 38,126 sales over the course of 2014, a drop of 1805 units or 4.5 per cent compared with the previous year. The HiLux was hurt most in the 4x4 sales segment, slipping 6.9 per cent compared with 2013.

Overall, the ute segment dipped notably in 2014, with 4x2 models dropping 6.7 per cent in 2014 compared with the previous year's figures, and 4x4 models down 3.3 per cent.

Several of the big-name players were down on last year's figures, with the Nissan Navara dropping out of the overall top 10 sales charts, with a 33 per cent dive to 16,080 units in 2014 (2013: 24,108). The Mitsubishi Triton accounted for 24,256 sales (a slight drop on 2013's tally of 24,512), while The Mazda BT-50 also dipped slightly, down 4.7 per cent with 13,051 units sold.

That's not say there were no big improvers over the course of the year, however.

Sales of the Ford Ranger rose 21 per cent in 2014 to 26,619 units (was 21,032 in 2013), and the rival Holden Colorado also increased its sales, up 4.7 per cent to 18,048 units (17,203 in 2013).

Sales of the Isuzu D-Max ute capped off a stellar year for the Japanese brand in which overall sales increased 63.3 per cent on the back of the introduction of the ute-based MU-X off-roader. The commercial model's sales rose 16.3 per cent over the course of 2014, with 12,049 sales (2o13: 10,089).

Those stalwart Aussie-made models, the Ford Falcon Ute and the Holden (Commodore) Ute struggled in light of increased competition in the 4x2 commercial vehicle landscape.

Falcon Ute sales slumped by 40.5 per cent to 2785 units (almost identical to the sedan, which dropped 40.2 per cent), while the Holden Ute dipped 5.8 per cent compared to 2013, tallying 5596 sales (the Commodore sedan and wagon, however, rose 8.8 per cent).

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