Ford Everest News

Australia’s top-selling car and the top-selling brands for 2024 have been revealed and it’s been yet another record year of sales.Last year, Australians bought 1,237,287 new vehicles, which represented a modest 1.7 per cent upswing compared with 2023 sales. It was enough to make it the biggest year of sales in Australian history.Utes and SUVs continued to dominate with just one passenger car - the Toyota Corolla - managing to remain in the top 10 best-selling models list.Almost 700,000 SUVs were sold in the calendar year compared with 270,000 light-commercial vehicles and just over 203,000 passenger cars (hatchbacks, sedans, wagons, sports cars and people movers).The top-selling model for 2024 was the Ford Ranger, repeating its 2023 win, despite a slight dip in sales to 62,593 (-1.2%).The Toyota RAV4 had its best sales year and came pretty close to toppling the Ranger, but had to settle for a still-impressive second place with 58,718 units, closely followed by its HiLux stablemate on 53,499.The Isuzu D-Max was the only other ute in the top 10, landing in fourth place with 30,194, and rounding out the top-five models was the Mitsubishi Outlander.Making up the rest of the top-10 models were Ford’s Everest, the Corolla, Mazda CX-5, MG ZS and the Kia Sportage. Check the tables below for all the figures.Toyota maintained its dominance in the industry, leading the charge with 241,296 sales, which is 12.1 per cent ahead of last year’s total.As expected, Ford leapfrogged Mazda to nab second place with a healthy 100,170 units, helped mostly by those solid Ranger and Everest numbers.Mazda dipped a little in 2024 (95,987) but remained well ahead of fourth-placed Kia on 81,787, while Mitsubishi (74,547) capped off the top-five brands.Hyundai (71,664) only just missed out on a top-five position, trailing Mitsubishi by 2883 units.MG also took a sales tumble but still stayed firm with 50,592 (-13.3%) for seventh place, while Isuzu continued to punch above its weight in eighth spot, recording 48,172 sales with just two models on sale.Nissan managed to make some gains in 2024, landing in ninth place with 45,284, and China’s GWM is now firmly a top-10 player having grabbed tenth spot with 42,782.The Chinese giant kept Subaru and Tesla out of the top list, with Subaru collecting 40,604 sales and Tesla sliding by 17 per cent to 38,347.The Model Y also just missed out on a top-10 spot for model sales, with 21,253 finding homes, a drop of 26 per cent.Despite the bumper sales year, the automotive industry’s peak body is forecasting a gloomy outlook and taking a swipe at the Federal Government’s New Vehicle Emissions Standards that kicked in on January 1.“While overall consumer preferences remain clear with SUVs and Light Commercial vehicles continuing to dominate the market and especially the top ten sales, many vehicles in these segments are either difficult or expensive to decarbonise. This will prove to be a significant challenge in meeting the extremely ambitious targets of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) which began on 1 January 2025,” Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Chief Executive Tony Weber said in a media release.“The industry is responding to NVES by increasing the range of zero and low emission vehicles on offer. However, a continuation of current customer buying preferences will inevitably lead to the accrual of substantial penalties under the Government’s new scheme, which will create price inflation within the new vehicle market.”

The Ford Everest hit the Australian market in August 2022 based on the same body-on-frame platform as the Ranger ute. Ford’s large off-road SUV was an instant hit, leaving rivals such as the Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Toyota Fortuner and even 150 Series Prado in its dust, proving the importance of true local development in Australia. Despite only being a little over two years old, rumours of a mid-life Everest update are already circulating with changes expected to the design, cabin technology and even the diesel engines coming, likely in late 2026 or early 2027. And it’s needed if the Everest is to continue taking sales from the new and much-improved Toyota Prado. CarsGuide has commissioned these speculative renders from Thanos Pappas to illustrate one direction Ford may travel in, leaning on design changes from the brand’s US-only Maverick for the new style. A larger, simpler black mesh grille replaces the existing item with its two horizontal bars. It tidies up the appearance, as do the new upside-down ‘L’ shaped LED headlights, instead of the existing ‘C’ shaped look. The Everest and Ranger’s mid-life makeover is expected to be minor because Ford spent so much nailing the design and packaging the first time around. Don’t expect major changes to the cabin design as it already has plenty of thoughtful details. The screen size may swell beyond the current 10- and 12-inch items (depending on trim) and we expect a graphics reskin, too. There will undoubtedly be more variants and special editions, too, following the addition of a Tremor trim. An Everest Raptor? That would be nice, but there’s no word yet. More changes are likely to come under the bonnet because, as CarsGuide previously reported, the Everest and Ranger’s diesel V6 and twin-turbo four-cylinder oiler are endangered species. This is due to Australia's changing regulatory environment, with emissions regulations that will punish carmakers for exceeding increasingly stricter CO2 emissions targets. Ford’s existing ‘Panther’ series four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine will be developed in single turbo guise. It’s currently found in the base Ranger XL producing 125kW and 405Nm, and the fifth-gen Transit Custom (125kW/390Nm), though no Everest variants. There’s an expectation Ford will effectively replace the V6 with its new 2.3-litre turbo-petrol based plug-in hybrid for the Ranger, but the Everest’s path is less clear. Any engine changes will have to occur without changing the Everest's core winning attributes: a 3500kg towing capacity, plenty of poke, off-road capability and decent payload ratings for a 4x4 wagon.With the Ranger’s sales life expected to end in 2030, the Everest is unlikely to be far behind it in current guise. We’ve got a lot of waiting to do for now, though, with the Everest’s mid-life update still expected to be more than two years away. 

They sell and sell and sell, they’re so popular they’re ubiquitous on our roads, some of them may never be used on the dirt and yet they’ve all become the people-movers of choice in the 21st Century – but are utes and 4WDs actually any good for families?Utes and 4WD wagons have swiftly become the go-to conveyances nowadays for everyone from city-based families to mumpreneurs, from adventure-sport loving weekend warriors to tech big-wigs.That’s all well and good but are utes and 4WDs well suited to families?Read on.In terms of day-to-day performance, comfort and practicality as family vehicles, utes and wagons are fairly even.Let’s look at some of the positive and not-so-positive factors of both vehicle types.A ute has a lot going for it as a family vehicle and it has one very obvious major point of difference with wagons and passenger cars: its open tray or tub. This versatile load space means that the extent of your packing is not restricted by your vehicle’s roof-line (as it is in a wagon), because the tub doesn’t have one.You can load beyond the top edge of a ute’s tub if needed, and tall or awkwardly shaped loads aren’t a problem either – think flat-packed furniture, building materials, cement mixers, pinball machines … you get the idea.The flip side of that major positive though is that the load is not covered and so it is not protected from the weather (rain etc) and it is not secure (from opportunistic thieves and the like). The remedy to these issues is getting a lockable tub cover that provides protection and security for whatever you choose to load into the tray. However, those solutions mean that the tub then becomes a uniform load space, i.e. you won’t be able to load tall or awkwardly shaped equipment or materials into the tub unless you leave the cover open.There’s a huge variety of OEM and aftermarket tray/tub coverings (hard or soft tonneau covers, roller shutters, aluminium lids etc) from which to choose. Or you can buy an aftermarket canopy to be fixed to your ute tub to protect your loaded gear, and many of those options are lockable and feature-packed. However, a canopy is not an engineered-at-vehicle-origin solution, so while it offers much better security, water- and dust-proofing than having no tub cover at all, it’s no match for a wagon’s built-in load space.But, once again, by affixing a cover to a ute’s tub – whether it’s a tonneau, roller shutter, canopy, or simply a bit of tarp over the top – defeats the original purpose of owning an open-topped ute anyway, because by doing so you’re instantly robbing the ute tub of its load-carrying versatility.In other ways, utes have come a long away over the past decade or so and, though still wearing leaf-spring suspension set-ups engineered to cope with any anticipated work gear or leisure equipment, they are generally regarded as being at least in the vicinity of passenger cars, in terms of comfort, cabin amenities and driver-assist technology.Whereas ride quality and handling in unladen utes was once severely compromised due to the leaf-spring suspension, those issues have largely been addressed if not resolved, and contemporary utes are now generally more composed and predictable on sealed surfaces and corrugated dirt tracks than they once were – even without a load onboard.Wagons also have plenty of positives in their favour as family conveyances, even as standard, and those may make them more appealing than a 2WD passenger car or van in a buyer’s eyes.4WD wagons offer flexibility in terms of passenger-carrying capabilities because a wagon may have five, seven or eight seats.They also, most importantly, offer families based in the city, suburbs or rural areas the peace of mind that a vehicle lacking 4WD, genuine country-tough robustness and decent ground clearance simply doesn’t.Your valuables (people, pets, camping gear, collection of Star Wars action figures etc) are afforded safety and security in a wagon because it is a fully enclosed and lockable load space, accessible from the main cabin.Another plus in their favour: 4WD wagons have coil-spring set-ups, so ride quality and handling is composed and predictable on sealed surfaces and corrugated dirt tracks.Utes and wagons make great choices as family vehicles – hence they’re overwhelming popularity.They’re versatile people- and load-carrying vehicles; they’re comfortable, roomy, robust and offer the driver a peace of mind not possible in a passenger car.You may never take your family 4WD off the actual road, but at least you know you can if you want to.

It’s been another huge year at CarsGuide, especially when it comes to our video content.

With Australia's four-wheel drive segment more competitive than ever before, deciding which off-road SUV to buy has become an increasingly complicated task.

Ford has rolled out massive discounts across its vehicle range, including on Australia’s best-selling vehicle.  Variants of everything from the low-volume E-Transit to market-leading Ford Ranger ute are on special, with the family-favourite Everest SUV also on offer. 

The Toyota RAV4 hybrid topped sales charts again in November, but it isn’t likely to take the number one spot from the Ford Ranger this year.

Ford has revealed some minor tweaks to its Everest range for 2025, while a slight price increase will impact a couple of variants.

Ford has treated its flagship SUV, the Everest, to a suite of off-road and exterior upgrades with special-edition Tremor packaging.

What a way for the last-ever Australian designed and engineered mainstream vehicles to hush their critics and (eventually) bow out in glory.