Ford versus Mazda! Sales battle heats up as 2024 Ford Ranger and Everest help edge the Blue Oval ahead of Mazda despite strong CX-5 and SUV sales

Ford has overtaken Mazda in year-to-date sales following another huge month for the Ranger ute and its Everest SUV twin.

This makes Ford the number two brand in Australia so far this year behind the seemingly unbeatable Toyota.

Ford grew its sales by 40.9 per cent in May compared with the same month in 2023, which was almost entirely off the back of massive Ranger and Everest sales.

The Ranger was the top-selling model in May, with a 5912-unit haul - enough to outpace its archrival the Toyota HiLux, which recorded 5702 sales.

The Everest SUV had another bumper month with a 160 per cent jump landing it in eighth place with 2110.

The year-to-date sales gap between Ford and Mazda is small - 40,129 to Mazda’s 39,064. Mazda sales dipped by a little over five per cent last month, but the ageing CX-5 scored a top 10 placing with 2108 (+14.2%) sales.

Ford Ranger

While Ford is almost exclusively reliant on the Ranger and Everest for sales volume (with some extra sales from the Transit Custom van), Mazda has a broader model range with volume spread across models like the BT-50 ute and SUVs such as the CX-5, CX-30 and CX-3 - that latter of which is the top-selling light SUV.

The new Transit Custom and Mustang are due later this year, but whether that’s enough to hold Mazda back remains to be seen. More of Mazda’s large SUV models are also expected soon.

Mitsubishi Outlander

Toyota topped the charts with a 27.5 per cent bump to 23,389, and that was due to another massive month for the RAV4 (5517, +110.9%), as well as exceptional results for the Camry (2468, +185.6%) (which is about to be replaced) and Corolla small car (2439, +76%).

Toyota Camry

Following Mazda’s third placing last month was Kia (7504) then Hyundai (6495), while Mitsubishi (6409) grew its sales to land in sixth overall with a strong showing from the Outlander that was the country’s fifth best-selling model.

Isuzu Ute (4401) continued its strong form with just two models - the D-Max was fourth overall in May.

Toyota RAV4

Big news towards the back of the top 10 - while MG (4159) was in eighth spot overall after a sales dip, Chinese rival GWM (3820) - home to Haval, Ute, Ora and Tank sub-brands - took ninth spot, proving that it is a force in the Australian market.

American EV manufacturer Tesla (3567) took a 20.3 per cent hit to sales last month, but the Model 3 just snuck into the top 10.

Tesla Model 3

Other brands that lost sales last month include Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Genesis, Volkswagen and Lexus, while Nissan continued to increase its share, as did BMW, Peugeot, BYD and Honda.

Most popular brand May 2024

Most popular models May 2024