Australia 1990: Holden Commodore takes the advantage
Holden Commodore
* See the Top 10/20 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to David *
Thanks to David I can share with you a Top 10 models ranking at year-end for 1990, a very good year for car sales in Australia at 617,298 registrations. With the slight difference in that sales of badge-engineered models are counted together and only passenger cars appear, no commercial vehicles or 4WDs. In this context the Holden Commodore/Toyota Lexcen is the favourite car in Australia this year with 73,230 sales and 11.9%, ahead of the Ford Falcon at 58,967 units and 9.6%. Note that even without the Lexcen (estimated at 2% of the market at most), the Commodore would still be #1.
Ford Falcon
In a June 1990 issue of Car Australia I also found a Top 20 models ranking for January/February 1990 which illustrates how intense the Commodore/Falcon fight was during that time. While the Commodore was #1 in January 1990 with 4,572 sales vs. 3,571 for the Falcon, in February the Falcon is in the lead at 4.088 units and 9.2% market share vs. 3,988 and 9% for the Commodore. This ranking has the badge-engineered cars counted separately so you can see the Toyota Lexcen, a rebadged Commodore, at #9, the Ford Telstar, a rebadged Mazda 626, at #12 and the Holden Apollo, a rebadged Toyota Camry, is #14.
Ford Laser
Back to the year-end ranking: the Toyota Corolla/Holden Nova takes the third spot with 35,557 sales and 5.8%, followed by the Ford Laser at 32,749 units and 5.3% (it would be #3 in a ranking with badge-engineered cars kept separate) and the Mitsubishi Magna with 31,808 sales and 5.2%. The Toyota Camry/Holden Apollo is the 6th model to grab over 5% market share at 31,621 units and 5.1%.
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Full Year Top 10 and February/2 months 1990 Top 20 Ranking Tables below.
Australia Full Year 1990:
| Pos | Model | 1990 | % |
| 1 | Holden Commodore/Toyota Lexcen | 73,230 | 11.9% |
| 2 | Ford Falcon | 58,967 | 9.6% |
| 3 | Toyota Corolla/Holden Nova | 35,557 | 5.8% |
| 4 | Ford Laser | 32,749 | 5.3% |
| 5 | Mitsubishi Magna | 31,808 | 5.2% |
| 6 | Toyota Camry/Holden Apollo | 31,621 | 5.1% |
| 7 | Nissan Pulsar | 27,577 | 4.5% |
| 8 | Nissan Pintara/Skyline | 13,688 | 2.2% |
| 9 | Mazda 626/Ford Telstar | 12,458 | 2.0% |
| 10 | Mitsubishi Lancer | 7,437 | 1.2% |
Australia February 1990 (Passenger cars only):
| Pos | Model | Feb-90 | % | 2m 90 | Pos |
| 1 | Ford Falcon | 4,088 | 9.2% | 7,659 | 2 |
| 2 | Holden Commodore | 3,988 | 9.0% | 8,560 | 1 |
| 3 | Ford Laser | 2,712 | 6.1% | 4,911 | 3 |
| 4 | Mitsubishi Magna | 2,293 | 5.2% | 4,812 | 4 |
| 5 | Toyota Camry | 2,247 | 5.1% | 4,487 | 5 |
| 6 | Toyota Corolla | 1,637 | 3.7% | 3,578 | 6 |
| 7 | Nissan Pintara | 1,116 | 2.5% | 2,324 | 8 |
| 8 | Nissan Pulsar | 1,069 | 2.4% | 2,492 | 7 |
| 9 | Toyota Lexcen | 852 | 1.9% | 1,618 | 9 |
| 10 | Mitsubishi Colt | 683 | 1.5% | 1,005 | 15 |
| 11 | Nissan Skyline | 651 | 1.5% | 1,495 | 10 |
| 12 | Ford Telstar | 645 | 1.5% | 1,339 | 12 |
| 13 | Holden Barina | 637 | 1.4% | 1,355 | 11 |
| 14 | Holden Apollo | 604 | 1.4% | 1,305 | 13 |
| 15 | Ford Capri | 553 | 1.2% | 1,186 | 14 |
| 16 | Mazda 626 | 511 | 1.2% | 945 | 18 |
| 17 | Ford Corsair | 509 | 1.1% | 915 | 20 |
| 18 | Daihatsu Charade | 507 | 1.1% | 993 | 16 |
| 19 | Ford Fairlane | 461 | 1.0% | 928 | 19 |
| 20 | Toyota Celica | 456 | 1.0% | 949 | 17 |
Source: Paxus, Car Australia June 1990. Many thanks to David for the Full Year 1990 data.
1990 was just plain weird – 2 sports cars on the top 20, and Celica selling 400+ a month! An unusual anomaly of a good sales year sandwiched between 2 horrible recessions, and even after the 90s recovered, sports cars never returned to these kinds of sales levels, and likely never will again.