Most Australians are accustomed to automobiles just like the Toyota RAV4, Ford Ranger, and Mitsubishi Outlander, however even when these well-known nameplates have been round for fairly a while, they actually don’t paint a full image of their respective model’s native historical past.
That’s why we’ve determined to match the primary automobiles to be bought in Australia by every of our top-10 best-selling auto manufacturers with their latest nameplates. It’s supposed to be a lighthearted take a look at then versus now, as an example how far every common marque has come.
We’ve included solely the newest present nameplates from every of those firms, since they’re new fashions that will not have existed domestically beforehand.
There are many newer powertrains and variants than a few of these fashions, however that’s getting slightly too far into the weeds and would shortly outdate this text given the tempo of the fashionable auto trade.
Be sure you tell us within the feedback beneath for those who’re interested by any such article – clearly there are lots of manufacturers we haven’t talked about right here, however we’re open to creating this a recurring sequence.
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Toyota: LandCruiser FJ25, Tundra
Toyota has lengthy been Australia’s top-selling auto model, and it may proudly hint its native beginnings again to 1959.
Uniquely, the institution of Toyota in Australia was initiated by a neighborhood businessman who drew the automaker in, slightly than Toyota in search of enlargement outdoors Japan, earlier than Australia turned the primary export marketplace for what’s now the world’s largest automaker.
In 1958, a building firm owned by Leslie Thiess turned the primary Australian firm to win a contract from the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme in New South Wales.
To help his firm’s work, he privately imported round 12 Toyota LandCruiser FJ25s to make use of on the positioning.
The story goes that Sir Les was so impressed with the FJ25’s capabilities that he approached Toyota in Japan to develop into an official distributor in Australia. His utility was profitable and, in 1959, Thiess Toyota turned the official Queensland distributor for Toyota business automobiles.
The transfer additionally made Australia the primary official export marketplace for Toyota, and 12 dealerships have been established in Queensland in 1959. Toyota says 69 LandCruisers have been bought throughout these dealerships in that 12 months.
Regardless of the arrival and success of numerous Toyota passenger automobiles and SUVs just like the Camry, Corolla, and RAV4 – to not point out a number of iconic sports activities automobiles borne out of motorsport – the FJ25’s notoriety means it’s maybe becoming that Toyota’s latest Australian nameplate can also be a business automobile.
Enter the Tundra, a full-size American pickup that entered Australian showrooms in late 2024.
It’s transformed from left- to right-hand drive by Walkinshaw Automotive in Melbourne, and competes with different massive US rigs just like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500.
There aren’t another new nameplates within the pipeline for Toyota, although a facelift for the bZ4X mid-size electrical SUV, in addition to the brand new bZ4X Touring, the primary LandCruiser Hybrid, and the next-gen RAV4 are all slated for launch within the coming months.
MORE: Discover the Toyota showroom
Ford: Mannequin T, Tourneo
There are two key dates in Ford’s Australian historical past. One is when the primary Ford was formally bought in Australia, and the opposite is when Ford Australia was formally established and started native manufacturing.
It’s believed that a minimum of one Ford arrived in Australia as early as 1904, nevertheless it wasn’t till 1909 that overseas model consultant for the corporate, RJ Durance, moved from Canada to Port Melbourne, the place he established an Australian Ford department and kicked issues off by promoting the Mannequin T.
Some have been imported absolutely assembled, whereas others have been imported in elements after which assembled domestically. Many have been then demonstrated in cities throughout Australia, attracting public curiosity and prompting numerous Ford businesses to be recruited to promote the Mannequin T.
Greed and cash quickly took management although, as Ford distributors have been reported to be gouging sub-dealers and prospects. In response, Ford Canada despatched two executives to Australia in 1923, who then beneficial {that a} manufacturing plant be established in Tasmania.
Geelong was later chosen because the plant’s location, and the primary domestically manufactured Mannequin T produced by the newly established Ford Australia was accomplished in July 1925, regardless of the automobile being very outdated by that time.
Different Ford crops have been later inbuilt Adelaide and Brisbane, and milestones in Ford Australia’s storied 100-year historical past embrace the launch of the Falcon in 1960 and the Territory in 2004 (Australia’s first and solely home-brewed SUV). All good issues should come to an finish although, and native manufacturing concluded in 2016.
Ford Australia was charged with growth of the T6 platform that has now underpinned two generations of the Everest SUV and Ranger ute, which now gives plug-in hybrid variations and, quickly, beefy Tremendous Obligation variations too.
Each fashions allowed Ford to keep up a major market share domestically. However whereas Ford has launched a plethora of recent variants and powertrains lately, none are strictly all-new nameplates and due to this fact don’t match our standards. Ford’s latest native nameplate is the Tourneo, a individuals mover based mostly on the Transit Customized van that launched in October 2024.
Ford has a lot extra on the way in which too, with electrical and plug-in hybrid Transit Customs, an replace to the electrical Mustang Mach-E, and the Ranger Tremendous Obligation for imminent launch.
MORE: Discover the Ford showroom
Kia: Sportage and Mentor, Tasman
Kia was formally launched in Australia in 1997, when it introduced two mannequin from its Korean homeland to get the ball rolling: the Mentor hatch and sedan, and the Sportage SUV.
A kind of caught higher than the opposite, however neither of those two automobiles was the primary Kia-badged mannequin to look Down Underneath. That distinction goes to the Ceres, a small work truck delivered to Australia from 1991 by the use of personal imports, however in respectable numbers – round 300 have been milling about by 1996.
However the Mentor and Sportage might be collectively credited with being the primary Kia fashions formally bought in Australia, as a result of the Korean model had little involvement in native Ceres gross sales earlier than it formally arrange store right here.
Whereas the Mentor solely lasted till 2000, the Sportage nonetheless exists right this moment and is now Kia’s best-selling mannequin domestically by a substantial margin.
It’s a great factor that it took off too, as a result of Kia was getting ready to chapter on the precise time it was first launched in Australia.
The Korea First Financial institution had even frozen Kia’s debt to delay its demise as manufacturers like Samsung, Daewoo and Ford took curiosity in claiming the model, nevertheless it was ultimately Hyundai that gained out, securing a majority stake and writing off the corporate’s debt.
Kia has since gone from energy to energy in Australia, efficiently shifting away from its mid-2000s popularity of providing solely low cost and cheerful financial system automobiles. Now fielding a visually distinctive and usually trendy lineup, Kia’s latest nameplate right here is the Tasman ute, launched in 2025.
Like a number of the different manufacturers listed right here, Kia’s newest mannequin is designed to faucet into one in every of Australia’s hottest new-vehicle market segments. With a diesel engine and a usually conventional dual-cab strategy (aside from its exterior design), the Tasman returns Kia to its native roots and sews the seed for future business automobiles from the now-popular model.
Kia is ready to launch a brand new vary of battery-electric business vans, led by the PV5 in 2026, following on from a busy 2025 that introduced new nameplates together with the K4 small sedan and EV3 small electrical SUV.
MORE: Discover the Kia showroom
Mazda: T600, CX-80
Mazda holds the distinctive distinction of being the one model on this checklist to have began in Australia with a three-wheeled automobile. This was the T600, first imported in 1959.
The T600 was first accessible domestically with a 596cc air-cooled engine, and it arrived right here in the identical 12 months it was launched in its Japanese dwelling market.
It’s additionally vaguely fascinating that T600 is the export title for this unusual three-wheeled truck, and it was referred to as the Mazda K360 in Japan. Kia additionally struck a deal to promote it in Korea because the Kia T600.
At slightly below 3m lengthy and 1.3m tall, the T600 bore a better resemblance to a tricycle than a correct motorized vehicle. Its claimed high velocity of 65km/h most likely isn’t that far off a tricycle hurtling down a steep hill, both.
Mazda continued to develop in Australia after this, and by the late Sixties it was managing to promote greater than 10,000 automobiles a 12 months. It launched into its rotary renaissance all through the Seventies and Eighties, whereas additionally going loopy with a plethora of various manufacturers in Japan.
Quick-forward to right this moment and Mazda is a favorite amongst Australian consumers. Like virtually all of its opponents, its lineup is now dominated by SUVs – though it nonetheless fields some smaller automobiles, together with the long-lasting MX-5 roadster.
The newest in its swarm of SUVs are its ‘massive platform’ CX fashions: the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80, and CX-90. Australia is the one market globally to get all 4, and you’ll entertain your self by asking a non-car particular person, or perhaps a automobile particular person, to inform all of them aside for those who’re bored.
The 60 and 90 have been first to reach in 2023, whereas the 70 and 80 have been launched only a few weeks aside in late 2024, which suggests the latter is the latest Mazda nameplate in Australia. It’s the biggest of the 4 and might be had with a alternative of mild-hybrid six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, or a four-cylinder PHEV for those who’re so inclined.
A shoo-in for Mazda’s subsequent new mannequin in Australia is the 6e, an electrical sedan based mostly on the Chinese language-made Deepal L07.
MORE: Discover the Mazda showroom
Hyundai: Excel, Ioniq 9
In April 1986, auto media trade stalwart John Mellor wrote in Automotive Australia that Hyundai “poses little or no risk to any current automobiles”, and provided “little or no incentive to purchase” the 1986 Excel – the South Korean model’s first mannequin in Australia.
Quick-forward to February 1987 and Mr Mellor had backflipped, warning readers to “stand by for the Korean invasion” and likening Kia’s arrival to Toyota’s some 20 years earlier. He was proper to take action, even when the Korean newcomer’s pioneering Excel didn’t initially set the gross sales charts alight.
This was regardless of the very fact it was Australia’s solely automobile to be priced beneath $10,000 in 1986. With a beginning worth of $9990 at launch (the inflation-adjusted equal of about $32,500 in 2025), it was cheaper than a base Toyota Corolla at roughly $11,600 (round $37,700 right this moment).
Hyundai was first launched in Australia by Alan Bond, who partnered with one other Western Australian businessman John Hughes to import the Korean model, beginning with only one dealership in Perth, and the Italian-designed Excel turned Australia’s top-selling imported small automobile by 1988, setting the stage for the model’s fast rise within the Australian market.
Hyundai Motor Firm Australia was based in 2003, across the time when a few of its present staple nameplates, together with the Santa Fe and Tucson SUVs, first appeared globally.
Now, Hyundai is persistently a top-five model in Australia and fields a broad portfolio of numerous fashions, together with a handful of business automobiles such because the Staria Load.
However electrical automobiles are arguably the place Hyundai has made its most spectacular developments lately. It’s in that class the place we discover the Korean model’s latest nameplate to reach in Australia, the Ioniq 9, which was launched in 2025.
The big electrical SUV is the newest EV to bear the Ioniq title, following the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan. Apparently, the Ioniq title was launched with a multi-powertrain hatch in 2018, which was accessible as a plugless hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electrical automobile.
Hyundai is now gearing as much as launch its up to date Palisade massive SUV, and has a number of different EVs ready within the wings.
MORE: Discover the Hyundai showroom
BYD: Atto 3, Sealion 7
BYD is among the latest Chinese language manufacturers in Australia, and regardless of launching domestically solely in 2022 it seems to have cemented its place among the many 10 best-selling producers right here, surpassing a number of Western manufacturers within the course of.
The mannequin that kicked all of it off was the Atto 3, a small-medium electrical SUV that now seems comparatively tame in comparison with BYD’s newest automobiles.
It’s nonetheless one of many model’s best-sellers domestically, nevertheless it has since been overtaken by new plug-in hybrids just like the Sealion 6 mid-size SUV and the Shark 6 dual-cab ute.
You’ll discover BYD has a robust give attention to electrified automobiles. It is because the automotive division of the overarching BYD firm is a comparatively small a part of its whole operations and BYD began out as a battery producer.
Enjoyable reality: BYD’s earliest work with electrical automobiles resulted in a automobile referred to as the BJ6490D – constructed from a knock-down equipment of a Holden VN Commodore wagon and powered by golf cart batteries.
Regardless of its quick native historical past, BYD has grown to discipline six fashions within the Australian market. Till very not too long ago, the model was imported right here by impartial distributor EVDirect, however BYD took direct management of its Australian operations in July 2025.
Its most up-to-date new nameplate (and the final to be launched by EVDirect) is the Sealion 7 launched in 2025. It’s one other electrical SUV, albeit bigger than the Atto 3, and BYD’s most direct rival to the top-selling Tesla Mannequin Y so far.
Issues are nonetheless shifting shortly for BYD Australia, which is now gearing as much as launch 4 new fashions by the tip of this 12 months. Considered one of them would be the cute little Seagull electrical hatch, which is named the Dolphin Surf within the UK however, sadly, will probably be rebranded because the Atto 1 for Australia.
Moreover, BYD’s luxurious model Denza will probably be launched in Australia in November 2025 with two massive plug-in hybrid off-road SUVs.
MORE: Discover the BYD showroom
GWM: V240 and SA220, Haval H7
GWM holds the excellence of being the primary Chinese language auto model to look in Australia, by way of impartial importer Ateco Automotive in 2009. A factory-backed operation took over in 2016, and Ateco is now answerable for Renault, Ram, Maserati, and LDV.
In fact, GWM was initially referred to as Nice Wall Motors, and model’s first two native fashions have been forgetably named dual-cab pickups – the V240 and SA220. Everybody remembers them, proper?
Granted, the names of these two utes in China would have been ripe for ridicule in Australia. The V240 was referred to as the Wingle 3, whereas the SA220 was badged barely much less comically because the Sailor. Neither was a fantastic match for a market dominated by mighty Falcons and Commodores, and later HiLuxes and Rangers.
Whereas the Wingle, er, V240 lasted right here till 2014, the SA220 survived for less than two mannequin years earlier than being changed by the V200 in 2011. The V200 was differentiated by its turbo-diesel engine, whereas the V240 continued to come back with a naturally aspirated petrol engine.
Nice Wall continued to introduce extra SUVs and utes till 2020, when it started morphing into the extra trendy GWM model that we all know right this moment.
The Ute Cannon was the primary mannequin bought underneath the brand new banner, in 2020. It instantly changed the Nice Wall Steed, which had been a staple within the Chinese language model’s international lineup – the final era was referred to as the Wingle 6 in China.
Since then, GWM has continued bringing new fashions, even launching a handful of sub-brands within the Australian market, beginning with the SUV-focused Haval model, which gave us GWM’s latest native mannequin: the 2025 Haval H7 mid-size SUV.
Regardless of preliminary efforts to ascertain a number of particular person manufacturers domestically, because it has in China, GWM has introduced every of its manufacturers again underneath the GWM umbrella right here, permitting Australians to stroll right into a GWM dealership and select from a variety of GWM utes, Haval SUVs, Tank off-roaders, and even Ora electrical automobile.
GWM has a number of new fashions and types on their ‘Wey’ to Australia, together with Wey, a extra luxury-focused model scheduled for native launch in mid-2026.
MORE: Discover the GWM showroom
Mitsubishi: Colt Galant, Eclipse Cross
Mitsubishi has an fascinating relationship with Australia, the place its first mannequin pre-dated the founding of the absolutely fledged Mitsubishi Motors Australia in 1980.
The primary Mitsubishi mannequin launched in Australia was the Colt Galant, which first appeared right here in 1970. It was round this time that Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Company joined forces with America’s Chrysler, which acquired a stake in Mitsubishi in 1971.
As Chrysler Australia had operated a automobile meeting plant within the Adelaide suburb of Tonsley Park since 1964, the Mitsubishi deal allowed it to construct and promote a number of Mitsubishi-designed automobiles as Chryslers in Australia.
That meant we obtained automobiles just like the Chrysler Valiant Galant and the Chrysler Sigma till 1980, when the tide turned and Mitsubishi acquired virtually all of Chrysler Australia. Mitsubishi Motors Australia was thus born in October of that 12 months.
Native manufacturing of automobiles just like the Sigma, Colt, Magna, and 380 continued till 2008, when Mitsubishi shuttered Australian manufacturing for good, though Mitsubishi Motors Australia continues to be headquartered in Adelaide.
Since native manufacturing ended, all-new Mitsubishi mannequin releases have been few and much between. The vast majority of the model’s present nameplates have been in existence for a minimum of a decade, whereas others such because the Lancer have been discontinued as Mitsubishi shifted its focus to SUVs and utes.
Its latest nameplate in Australia is due to this fact the Eclipse Cross, which was launched domestically in 2017 and follows the pattern of uninspiring crossover SUVs borrowing their title from sportier and extra well-known fashions, as most automobile lovers know the Eclipse because the sports activities coupe that starred in Quick and Livid.
The small SUV gained plug-in hybrid energy in 2021, forming Mitsubishi’s PHEV duo alongside the Outlander PHEV, which dates again to 2014.
A change in Australian auto security rules spelled the tip for the Eclipse Cross in Australia earlier this 12 months. In contrast to the equally affected ASX, which has discovered new life due to the Renault Captur, there’s to this point been no info on a neighborhood alternative for the Eclipse Cross.
MORE: Discover the Mitsubishi showroom
Tesla: Roadster, Mannequin Y
It took Tesla three years to formally carry its first mannequin to Australia, with the Roadster electrical convertible formally arriving in 2011, after its US launch in 2008.
The bottom-breaking Roadster was seen on native soil earlier than that, although. In a well-publicised transfer, Adelaide-based businessman Simon Hackett took supply of the primary right-hand drive Tesla Roadster in Australia in 2008.
Mr Hackett had truly waited for his Roadster since putting an order in 2006, and then-Tesla Australia common supervisor Rudi Tuisk additionally used one of many fashions to advertise EV know-how to varied governments and companies round Australia.
A notable stunt was driving a Roadster from Sydney to Bathurst on a single cost, adopted by a lap of the long-lasting Mount Panorama circuit.
The Tesla Mannequin S massive sedan and Mannequin X massive SUV got here and glided by 2020, once they departed from Australian showrooms because of the finish of right-hand drive manufacturing. However by then the brand new Mannequin 3 mid-size sedan had arrived to a lot fanfare domestically in 2019.
It was joined in 2022 by its SUV sister mannequin, the Mannequin Y, which continues to be the latest Tesla nameplate launched in Australia. It has proved tremendous common too, turning into Australia’s and the world’s favouite EV since then.
There have been whispers of the controversial Cybertruck electrical pickup making its means Down Underneath since its US debut in late 2023, however Australian security rules have to this point saved it off native roads aside from a handful of public demonstration runs.
The Mannequin Y obtained a facelift earlier in 2025, however except for the six-seat L model now provided in China, and the funds Commonplace variant being revealed within the US not too long ago (in lieu of an all-new smaller and cheaper EV), there have been no new Tesla nameplates for fairly a while.
MORE: Discover the Tesla showroom
MG: MG 6, U9
To make clear, the fashions listed above fall underneath the Chinese language-owned MG Motor umbrella, which has operated domestically underneath the MG Motor Australia title since 2016.
In fact, the British MG model has a storied historical past that dates again to the1920s, lengthy earlier than its acquisition by SAIC Motor in 2007, however that is far faraway from the model that operates right this moment, and concrete info on the primary British-built MG automobiles bought in Australia is scarce.
What is thought is that the British Motor Company, which owned MG on the time, opened its first Australian manufacturing facility in Zetland, Sydney, in 1952. It first constructed the MGA and, regardless of forming a major native manufacturing presence, mechanical parts and physique panels have been imported from the UK.
Succeeding the MGA, roughly 9000 examples of the MGB sports activities automobile have been inbuilt Australia from 1963 to 1972 – solely the Roadsters, not the extra highly effective GTs. After 1972, most MGs that discovered their option to Australia have been privately imported, a minimum of till 1997, when the convertible MG F was introduced right here.
The final British MGs bought domestically disappeared after 2005, and after a seven-year hiatus MG returned to Australia underneath Chinese language possession, with the introduction of the MG 6 in 2012.
Obtainable in each sedan and hatch physique types and with a guide transmission, the MG 6 was derived from the Roewe 550, which is what Rover turned after SAIC’s acquisition. Funnily sufficient, meaning the MG 6 was distantly associated to the Rover 75, manufacturing of which led to 2005.
The MG 6 didn’t final lengthy in Australia, the place it was pulled from sale after 2014, regardless of persevering with to be bought in abroad markets together with New Zealand. The MG model has come a good distance since then and, following the beginning of official manufacturing facility distribution right here virtually a decade in the past, it now threatens to develop into a top-10 model alongside a number of different Chinese language marques in Australia.
Tapping into Australia’s love of utes, MG’s latest mannequin right here is the U9 dual-cab, launched in 2025. It’s the model’s first ute and it brings fascinating options like impartial rear suspension and a folding ‘mid-gate’ between the cab and tub, though it’s in any other case a rebadged model of the Terron 9 ute from fellow SAIC model model LDV.
The U9 will quickly be joined by new MG fashions together with the S6 EV in 2026. In the meantime, the MG 7 massive sedan, which was scheduled to launch domestically in October 2025, has mysteriously fallen off the radar however continues to be anticipated to succeed in Australian showrooms ultimately.
MORE: Discover the MG showroom
