Page 27 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

31 Parts Check • 32 Business Matters • 34 Sikkens UV • 36 Tech Talk Subaru
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ABOVE: Holden’s Colorado is in the top 10 best sellers. LEFT: Australia’s best selling ute is the Toyota HiLux.
that means you need to be scaled up to cope with the increasing number of ever-bigger vehicles that are selling.
AND THE WINNERS ARE...
In terms of OEM brands that are kicking goals in Australia, and will continue to do so over the next few years, it’s hard to go past the top three. Our theoretical punter from the 1990s would shake his head in disbelief that Holden and Ford havebeentoppledbyToyota,Mazdaand Hyundai who now rule the sales charts.
Mazda’s growth from strength to strength will only continue over the next year as it adds a new and very appealing 3toitsline-up,aswellasvitalupgrades to its big-selling and family focused CX-5.
Toyota is the biggest brand for a rea- son, providing well-priced cars that con- tinue to satisfy older buyers with a bullet- proof reliability promise. Expect even more hybrids, like the Prius, and plenty of Lexuses, to be coming into the work- shop as the big Japanese brand sniffs
the winds of change. Prius is
Experts claim that utes, even
more so than bigger trucks, are replacing the formerly beloved
option of large sedans or wagons.”
The Germans, in the shape of the huge and world- dominating VW group, will continue to be a force over the next five years, with the acutely priced Golf siting just outside of the top-10 sell- ing cars in Australia, but
already the biggest-selling nameplate in the vast Japanese domestic market.
Meanwhile, Hyundai, which has done verywellwithitsnewandmoreVW Golf-like i30, and its cheap pricing, is the model that continues to grow, and to frighten the hell out of Japanese brands.
Behind them, Mitsubishi, Kia and Honda all posted record-breaking monthsin 2018, and will continue to be big players in the market. Kia may sell on value, but its product is getting better and better, while Honda is well placed to take advantage of the family SUV mar- ket with its CR-V and HR-V.
every chance of going higher.
VW has also been clever enough to
cash in on the boom in utes with its classier Amarok offering. Mercedes- Benz has also dropped into this space with its X-Class.
The other brand not to be forgotten, of course, is Nissan, with its excellent range ofhard-coreoff-roaders,andtheworld’s best-selling SUV, the excellent X-Trail.
CHARGING AHEAD
While the change in the size and shape of the vehicles the average Australian family buys has been a big leap over the
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