Australia 1987: Ford Falcon distant leader
1987 Ford Falcon
* See the Top 15 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Paul *
Thanks to Paul I am now able to share with you a Top 15 models ranking for October 1987 as well as year-to-date. 1987 was a particularly bad time for the car industry in Australia with only 451,829 registrations, less than in 1969! This is a time when Ford was ultra-dominant, holding a mammoth 31% of the Passenger Car market vs. 22% for Holden and 14% for Toyota. Logically, the Ford Falcon is by far the best-selling model in the country with 6,252 sales in October and 57,371 year-to-date, followed at some distance by the Holden Commodore (4,502 and 43,646).
Hyundai Excel
The Mitsubishi Magna takes the third spot with 2,855 units in October and 25,979 year-to-date, followed by the Ford Laser/Meteor with 2,263 sales in Oct and 23,511 year-to-date. The Toyota Corona/Camry, #7 year-to-date, is #5 in October ahead of the Nissan Pintara/Skyline and the Toyota Corolla. Notice also the Holden Camira at #8, the Ford Fairlane at #12 and the Hyundai Excel already at #15 only one year after the introduction of the brand in Australia.
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Full October and Year-to-date 1987 Top 15 Ranking Tables below.
Australia October 1987:
| Pos | Model | Oct-87 | 10m 1987 | Pos |
| 1 | Ford Falcon | 6,252 | 57,371 | 1 |
| 2 | Holden Commodore | 4,502 | 43,646 | 2 |
| 3 | Mitsubishi Magna | 2,855 | 25,979 | 3 |
| 4 | Ford Laser/Meteor | 2,263 | 23,511 | 4 |
| 5 | Toyota Corona/Camry | 2,122 | 17,344 | 7 |
| 6 | Nissan Pintara/Skyline | 1,888 | 17,576 | 6 |
| 7 | Toyota Corolla | 1,818 | 17,812 | 5 |
| 8 | Holden Camira | 1,304 | 11,207 | 8 |
| 9 | Nissan Pulsar | 1,170 | 6,446 | 9 |
| 10 | Holden Astra | 643 | 3,937 | 14 |
| 11 | Mitsubishi Colt | 641 | 6,117 | 10 |
| 12 | Ford Fairlane | 577 | 5,947 | 11 |
| 13 | Ford Telstar | 525 | 5,670 | 12 |
| 14 | Holden Barina | 392 | 4,128 | 13 |
| 15 | Hyundai Excel | 387 | 3,751 | 15 |
Source: Car magazine January 1988, many thanks to Paul for sharing the data!
Note: Hyundai split by model is not available
By the way, the model split for Hyundai isn’t necessary, as the Excel was the only model Hyundai sold in 1987. Hyundai itself was a new brand at the time, only having been introduced in 1986. The second model to arrive was the Sonata in 1989.
Oh great thanks very much for this info David, very useful!
cheers
Matt
1987 was the worst year in modern history for car sales in Australia. Only 451,829 cars were sold that year (compared to 1,000,000 per year these days). In fact, car sales were higher in 1969 (488,000) than they were in 1987!