The Ford Ranger was the best-selling vehicle across all segments in September with 4318 vehicles sold beating out rival the Toyota HiLux.

THE FORD RANGER has finished September as the best-selling car across all segments with 4318 sales beating out the Toyota HiLux which sold 3822 vehicles in September.

Speaking about the result, Greg Davidson, Sales Director of Ford Australia said: “With its locally-led design and engineering, we’re immensely proud that Australian customers’ feedback has allowed us to deliver a line-up of Ranger models that not only offer class-leading towing and strong payload capabilities, but also offer the safety and comfort to make them extremely liveable everyday vehicles”.

In the first nine months of this year, a total of 32,620 Ford Rangers have been sold in Australia, an increase of 21% over the same period in 2016.

Overall, September saw a total of 100,200 new vehicles sold which is down 2.4% compared with September 2016.

According to figures from VFACTS, pick-up and cab-chassis 4X4 light commercial vehicles, small, and medium SUVs were the three growth segments during September. The 4X4 light commercials were up 11%, small SUVs rose 7.9% and medium SUVs increased 3.3% compared with September 2016.

SUV and light commercials remain the two robust areas of the market, accounting for a 58.8 per cent share of total sales year to date, up from 56 per cent in 2016.

The overall market remained slightly ahead (0.2%) of last year’s record total on a year to date basis.

The Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), Tony Weber, said that while there was a modest sales fall in September, strong activity was recorded across several key segments.

“Any month over 100,000 total sales has to be seen as a strong outcome, proving there is continued value for the consumer in the market,” Mr Weber said.

“To keep this outcome in perspective, it has to be remembered that the September results of 2015 and 2016 were both very strong, and both those years ended in records.”

Toyota recorded a 1.07 per cent rise in sales during September for a dominant 17.3 per cent share overall, followed by Mazda with 10.3 per cent, Hyundai (8.1%), Mitsubishi (7.1%) and Holden (6.9%).

The Ford Ranger light commercial was Australia’s top-selling vehicle for September with 4318 sales, followed by the Toyota Hilux (3822), Toyota Corolla (3055), Mazda3 (2776) and Holden Commodore (2547).