Australia's favourite cars revealed: 2025 Toyota RAV4 beats the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max and Ford Everest for the top spot in August

Australians are speaking with their wallets as they flock to these cars in droves.

In a rarity for the Aussie car market, a ute was not the best selling vehicle in August.

The ageless Toyota RAV4 dethroned the Ford Ranger and strafed its HiLux stablemate, sinking it to third spot.

A total of 6712 RAV4s were delivered in August, smashing the Ranger’s 5432 and HiLux’s 4496 registrations, according to Federal Chamber of Automobile Industries data.

Aussies can’t get enough of their rough and tumble four-wheel drives with the Isuzu D-Max ute pulling 2548 sales followed by the Ford Everest (2273).

Eating the 4WDs' dust were a cache of SUVs lead by the Mitsubishi Outlander (2188), Kia Sportage (2052) and Mazda CX-5 (1927)

Toyota RAV4

The Toyota Corolla (1855) and Hyundai Kona (1674) rounded out the top 10.

Toyota dominated the market as usual, selling more than one in five new cars in August.

Ford stretched its lead over Mazda in the race for second and Chinese brand’s GWM and BYD had smash hit months.

Isuzu D-Max

GWM snuck into the top 10 beating mainstream players such as Subaru and Volkswagen. Its sales are up more than 20 per cent for the year.

BYD was up more than 150 per cent in August putting it more than 66 per cent ahead for the year.

The addition of the plug-in hybrid Sealion 6 mid-size SUV has paid off for the Chinese brand as it has moved more than 2000 units in a matter of months. The Sealion 6 could end the year as BYD's most popular vehicle.

Ford Ranger

Hybrids were again a hit with buyers, with sales of petrol-electric models almost doubling this year.

Plug-in hybrids are up more than 127 per cent in 2024, with the Sealion 6 playing a big part in the tech’s growth.

Sales of electric cars were down about 16 per cent for the month but are still up for the year.

BYD Sealion

Tesla is still the EV leader with about 2400 sales for the month split fairly evenly across the Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan. 

Luxury brands continue to struggle with all the big players experiencing a drop in sales this August compared to the past year.

More affordable brands such as Chery, GWM, Mitsubishi and Suzuki all had solid months.

Top 10 selling cars August

Top selling brands in August