Toyota’s HiLux all-wheel-drive variants continue to rule the Australian Outback as cumulative sales top 500,000 units.
HiLux 2-wheel-drive models arrived in Australia in 1971 and sales have exceeded 380,000. HiLux all-wheel-drive variants entered the crowded local market in 1980 and reached the half-million mark in 36 years.
The combined HiLux tally in Australia is 885,000 vehicles, with total sales averaging more than 39,000 units a year for the past decade and AWD models accounting for almost two-thirds of the total.
In 2015 the HiLux was the top-selling vehicle in Western Australia for the eighth straight year, in Queensland for the ninth and in the Northern Territory for the 15th. The automaker expects 2016 will be the HiLux’s 12th consecutive year as Australia’s top-selling AWD vehicle.
Toyota Sales and Marketing Executive Director Tony Cramb says the sales reflect its reputation for toughness and reliability.
“HiLux is renowned and respected for its ability to thrive in Australia's harshest conditions while also providing the space and features expected by a family,” Cramb says in a statement.
Toyota’s Australian dealers have sold 12,883 HiLux pickups so far this year, making it the country’s top-selling vehicle – 99 units ahead of the second-place Toyota Corolla.
