Hilux And Corolla Top The Sales Charts – Nov 05, 2016– Aichi , Japan (Techreleased) – Toyota’s evergreen Corolla and HiLux look set to take their showroom battle for sales supremacy right down to the last selling day in December.
With just eight weeks remaining in 2016, the two Toyota vehicles are neck-and-neck at the top of the national sales charts, separated by a mere 21 sales.
Corolla has been Australia’s best-selling car for each of the past three calendar years, but a see-saw tussle in 2016 has put its HiLux stablemate in a strong position to prevent a “four-peat”.
At the half-way point of the year, HiLux had edged ahead of Corolla by a mere 337 sales, only to see title-holder claw back the lead by 121 deliveries to the end of September.
HiLux responded with a market-leading tally of 3,352 sales in October, shading Corolla (3,210) and putting Australia’s favourite ute back in front by the closest margin yet – 34,179 to 34,158 deliveries. The nearest rival from a competitor is a further 1,762 sales adrift.
Thanks to the popularity of HiLux and Corolla – as well as continued strong demand for Camry, RAV4, Prado and LandCruiser – Toyota sales have risen to more than 171,500 so far this year.
This represents an increase of more than 2.9 per cent, which has also resulted in higher market share for Toyota. No other brand has reached 100,000 sales.
Toyota Australia’s executive director sales and marketing Tony Cramb said the company was excited at the possibility of a full-year “quinella”, but was taking nothing for granted.
“While it would be great if either one of these remarkable vehicles topped the scoreboard at the end of the year, the reality is that HiLux and Corolla appeal to vastly different customers,” Mr Cramb said.
“Even so, the closeness of the contest is inspiring our sales team and our dealers to focus on the one thing that will definitely make a difference – delivering the best possible experience to every guest,” he said.
“That’s the real battleground in the automotive industry – inspiring loyalty by going above and beyond guest expectations and converting them into advocates of the Toyota brand.
“To the extent Toyota delivers on that promise, continued industry-leading sales results will largely take care of themselves.”