The fifteen utes listed here range from the penthouse to the outhouse in more ways than one. The better examples are selling exceptionally well, the worst barely at all.

For the past two months the Toyota HiLux and the Ford Ranger have been Australia’s top-selling vehicles. Sales figures for both are well ahead of this time last year, 38,018 year-to-date (YTD) for the HiLux versus 32,028 for last year, and 33,567 YTD for the Ranger up from 26,349 in 2015.

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There are also very solid sales performances from the Mitsubishi Triton, Holden Colorado, Nissan Navara, Isuzu D-Max and the Mazda BT-50, all between 13,000 to almost 20,000 units YTD. The other end of the chart tells its own story.

There is a great variation in drivetrain, 4×4 and 4×2 obviously, single cab and dual cab, and engines ranging from 6.7-litre turbo-diesel truck engine (RAM), high-performance 6.2-litre petrol V8s (Holden), to underdeveloped four-cylinder diesels with turbo lag best measured via a calendar (Great Wall).

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To the despair of many, the passenger vehicle based ute is on death-row. The Falcon ute is already out of production, it is only old stock troubling the scorers now, while the Commodore based Holden ute will struggle on until late next year.

As much as they will be missed by some, the overall segment will barely skip a beat. Barring any late upset, the HiLux will be Australia’s most popular vehicle overall in 2016 with the Ranger right on its tailgate – and it’s a trend that shows little sign of changing anytime soon.

By Daniel Cotterill

Toyota Hilux