Ford News

Ford’s flagship sports car has just levelled up.Ford has announced its new Mustang Dark Horse SC sports car over in North America. This Mustang will replace the Shelby GT500 variant — as the top-spec track-ready edition of the car.Little is known about the technical details of the new muscle car, other than it will be powered by a supercharged 5.2-litre V8 petrol engine.This same engine is fitted to the hardcore Mustang GTD, which makes 608kW, but expect the Dark Horse SC to produce less than that but still more than the Shelby GT500's 567kW.Ford has confirmed a series of big changes to other areas of the car.It has had its suspension overhauled, with adaptive dampers and firmer springs than in the regular Dark Horse.There are also new anti-roll bars, and a lightweight strut tower brace to give the car more poise when handling. There has been some serious weight shedding on this Mustang, equating to 68 kilograms. With the Track package, the car sits on carbon-fibre wheels and there are forged aluminium suspension components, replacing steel ones.The Mustang has undergone some exterior styling changes, with a new aluminium hood featuring an imposing vent. There is a re-worked carbon fibre rear spoiler available, offering a substantial boost to downforce at high speeds. On the inside it gets a flat-bottom leather steering wheel. Alcantara and carbon fibre elements are a constant in the cabin.It is unlikely we will see this full-throttle version of the car in Australia in the short term, with buyers having to settle for the standard Dark Horse variant.It's naturally-aspirated 5.0-litre V8 only produces 372kW (which is 500-horsepower) and 566Nm.

Is there a more important vehicle category in dual-cab-devoted Australia than utes? I’m not sure there is. And I’m also sure that, in a segment that has sat stagnant for years, there has never been a more exciting time to be picking the best and brightest in the country.Where do we start? Maybe with China’s full-throttle assault on the segment? Or with the rise of plug-in hybrid petrol in a diesel-dominated market? Or Kia turning its hand to a ute for the very first time? Or BYD, for that matter?See what I mean? It’s an exciting time to be picking the best ute in Australia as part of the ongoing 2026 CarsGuide Car of the Year (COTY) awards, and the days of it being a two-way battle between the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger are well behind us.But to pick a winner, we first need to choose the best of the best that will be battling for the top prize. So without further adieu, this is the CarsGuide Car of The Year top-10 shortlist for sub-$85K Utes.This category's winner and two runners-up will be announced on February 6, 2026.Perhaps no other ute has been quite as surprising as the barnstorming BYD Shark 6, which has not only taken the fight to the established giants of the ute segment, it has done it without a diesel engine in sight.Instead, a plug-in hybrid powertrain does the heavy lifting here, with BYD arguably doing more to electrify the ute segment than any model to come before it. Our reviewers love the on-road refinement and the value-packed feature list, but concede its towing capacity lags its major rivals.It’s also on our shortlist because of its segment-altering drivetrain, which has forced several mainstream ute makers to follow its lead.A classic and the best-selling ute in the country for a reason. The Ford Ranger is on our shortlist for its driving dynamics (it’s among the most car-like utes on our list), which takes nothing away from its ability to get down and dirty in terms of towing or off-road capability.What really drew praise from our judges, though, is the breadth of the Ranger’s offering, with worksite-ready versions, family friendly versions, hardcore off-road versions, and a choice between several diesel engines or plug-in hybrid powertrains.That said, some pointed to the PHEV solution offering little in the way of real-world range.The unsung hero of Australia’s automotive world (it is, after all, often one of our top five best-selling vehicles), the Isuzu underwent a fairly major update that ironed out some of its more agricultural qualities with some design, cabin and technology updates.The D-Max was praised by our judges for doing exactly what it says on the tin, and delivering exactly what many ute buyers are looking for, with little fuss or fanfare. But some wonder whether it feels new and fresh enough.The entry-level cars also get a bigger smaller engine, if that makes sense. With the old 1.9-litre diesel swapped out for a 2.2-litre unit that’s both more powerful and more efficient. Tick and tick.Kia burst onto the ute scene with the boldly designed Tasman, a ute that really does look like few others on the road.Our judges were unanimous in praising the Tasman’s delightful and tech-filled cabin experience and its road manners, and reports of its off-road prowess are impressive, too.Its looks seemingly remain controversial, at least among the buying public, but there’s little doubting Kia’s first ute has plenty of substance, no matter what you think of its style.Sure, the BYD Shark 6 has been getting a ton of attention, but the LDV Terron 9 has been quietly plugs away as one of the biggest, and thus most practical in terms of tray, utes in the segment.And with 520Nm of torque at its diesel-powered disposal, it’s pretty punchy, too (as a vehicle this size probably needs to be).Our reviewers praised the space on offer in its tray, the strong value-for-money argument and its imposing street look, but were less sold on the lack of a power outlet in its tray and a sometimes lumpy power delivery.The BT-50 tends to stick out a little bit, both in the ute segment (where rough and tough is the design order of the day), and in Mazda’s own lineup, where the dual-cab ute rubs shoulders with mostly premium and polished SUVs.Early last year, Mazda addressed both those issues, deploying an Australia-led design overhaul intended to make the BT-50 “sportier and tougher”, clearly separating it from the rest of the brand’s lineup, and appealing more to traditional ute buyers.Our reviewers loved the look, the diversity of the range and the lux feel of the top-spec models, but didn’t love the too-firm suspension and the lack of a true hero model.The Chinese brand’s first-ever ute isn’t strictly its own, or at least not entirely. The MG U9 is a sibling to LDV Terron 9, which also appears on our shortlist.Our reviewers loved the U9’s interior space, especially in the impressive backseat, the ute’s sharp pricing against the established competition, and the nifty automatic step that deploys beneath the tailgate — described as “the nicest and definitely the easiest” way to climb into the tray.The active safety tech, however, impressed us less.The Mitsubishi Triton is a household name, albeit one that’s been left behind by the HiLux, Ranger and D-Max in recent years. A new generation arrived in 2024 that aimed to fix that, delivering more space, more power, more practicality and more space in the cabin.We loved the smoother drive experience, its warranty coverage (provided you service with Mitsubishi), its more modern-feeling cabin and its workhorse credentials.The less-positive notes included a clunky stop-start system and over-active safety tech.A new HiLux is big news in Australia, and while Toyota has opted to carry over a lot of key ingredients from the outgoing HiLux, they've also moved to address key complaints, like ride comfort and cabin technology, and to introduce a new look.And while our reviewers praised the updates, they also wondered whether Toyota had gone far enough in the face of new and stiff competition.The Volkswagen Amarok hasn't made quite the sales splash in Australia that its Ford Ranger relative has, but the German brand's ute has attracted plenty of praise from our reviewers, who love its style, its interior packaging and materials, and its on-road manners.Less positive is the sticker price of the high-end variants, and the sparse backseat amenities in the more affordable models. 

Ford's forbidden off-roader just got better.The Blue Oval has unveiled its Bronco RTR rugged SUV over in the United States, and it looks perfect for Australia.Expected in 2027, it is pitched as a more affordable version of the Raptor Bronco variant, receiving beefy upgrades across the board.It gets the same four-cylinder 2.3-litre turbo-petrol engine found in other US Bronco variants, but it has been given some performance tweaks.There is a 1000W cooling fan, as found in the Bronco Raptor, along with software changes as part of an anti-lag system.It has high-clearance suspension with Fox internal bypass dampers and 33-inch tires, which are the biggest-ever fitted to a showroom Bronco.All these features would make this new Bronco at home in Australia as a cheaper off-roading rival to the big hitters of the segment.The emission-heavy engine and left-hand drive manufacture of this Bronco makes it impractical for Ford to launch it Down Under.Australia is getting a Bronco-badged Ford in late 2026.The Australia-bound Bronco SUV will be the one built in China, use a range extender hybrid set-up and will likely be competitively priced. This means it will not be built on the T6 Ranger platform or be the monocoque-bodied Sport SUV, which are both sold in the US.The range extender hybrid Bronco will give Ford some much needed help as it chases New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) credits to offset its sales of high-polluting Ranger and Everest models.The hybrid Bronco in China has a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine that is used exclusively to charge the large BYD-sourced Lithium-Ferro-Phosphate (LFP) battery, which delivers an electric-only driving range of more than 200km.

Ford is looking to add new Raptor models to its lineup, according to Ford Authority.The Raptor name represents the high-performance, off-road specialist variants of Ford models.Ford’s Chief Financial Officer Sherry House said more Raptor models are in the works, at the recent Barclays Global Auto and Mobility Tech Conference."I know that some people in the audience here just had a wonderful ride in some of our Raptors, and that's a product that I think that we're going to be doing a bit more of as well," House said. “We're going to be leaning into these products that are just passion products. I mean, these are vehicles that people love.”Adding further fuel to the Raptor fire, is Ford's Dakar rally commitment to the range.The brand fielded its largest amount of Raptor-badged cars ever in the off-road race, with four factory Ford Racing Raptor T1+ full-size pick-ups and four additional privateer Raptors competing on the same core platform."Those privateer entries are a deliberate part of how we grow the Raptor ecosystem globally — sharing technology, data, and durability across customer teams who are pushing the same hardware in the same extreme conditions," Ford said in a press release before the race.There is nothing offical yet on what these new Raptor models could be.The Ranger Raptor ute is the only Ford currently on sale in Australia bearing the iconic name plate, sitting at the top of the best-selling Ranger line-up. One new possibility is a Ford Mustang Raptor. The Mustang is the best-selling sports car in Australia and the Blue Oval’s third best seller behind the Ranger ute and Everest SUV. An Everest Raptor is another possibility, but it would likely need to get the V6 petrol engine found in the Ranger Raptor.There is also a Raptor variant of the Bronco compact SUV, but the Bronco has never been officially sold in Australia. 

To torture a well worn Mark Twain reference, if Australia’s 2025 new vehicle sales numbers are anything to go by, reports of the diesel engine’s death are greatly exaggerated.According to Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries VFacts registration data, for the full calendar year of 2025 diesel-powered vehicles across passenger, SUV and light commercial segments totalled 364,605 units, only 1.7 per cent lower than 2024’s overall number (370,818).In fact, sales of diesel-powered passenger cars were up 1.3 per cent year-on-year (10,372 vs 10,242) with diesel SUV sales rising no less than 6.0 per cent (122,603 vs 115,670).Diesel light-commercial sales were down 5.4 per cent (231,630 vs 244,906) while plug-in hybrid commercials went from zero in 2024 to 20,634 last year.A coincidence that 18,073 examples of BYD’s Shark 6 PHEV dual cab ute found homes last year? We think not.The Ford Ranger was the best selling vehicle in 2025, but it wasn't alone at the top.Traditional diesel-heavy sellers the Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max, Ford Everest and Toyota Prado filled the third to sixth slots on the 2025 overall sales leader board with others such as the Mitsubishi Triton lifting year-on-year volume, too. Only the second placed Toyota RAV4 Hybrid managed to break up diesel's dominance atop the new car sales charts last year.Of course, nothing stays the same forever and given the rapidly shifting form of the Australian new vehicle market and the increasing impact of the federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) regime there’s a chance the diesel engine’s status may have changed dramatically by the end of 2026.But for now, it appears diesel power isn’t headed for the automotive graveyard just yet.  Australian diesel vehicle registrations:

Ford Australia said the brand was confident it would maintain its position as the second best selling brand in the nation thanks to the “never seen before” response to the new Ranger Super Duty.The Blue Oval's Australian Marketing Director Ambrose Henderson said the brand was “really confident” in its plans for next year, despite renewed pressure from both established and upcoming rivals.Ford depends heavily on its best-selling Ranger ute for its impressive sales of nearly 100,000 units in 2026. It now faces a renewed push from Kia with its long-awaited Tasman and BYD shaking up the ute space with its smash-hit Shark 6 PHEV, and that’s not to mention Toyota and its recently-refreshed HiLux range.Henderson said continued updates for the Ranger and Everest line-up, including wider availability of the V6 now the 2.0-litre bi-turbo has been axed, as well as new variants and incremental content upgrades would see the ute continue to fend off the competition.But the biggest source of new sales will be the Ranger Super Duty, Henderson said.“We’re still in the launch phase for Super Duty” Henderson explained. ‘We expect to have a really successful year on that in 2026 — our expectation is that it is going into white space and will be an incremental opportunity for us.”By this, he means the Super Duty was unlikely to cannibalise existing Ranger Sales, and instead will enter a new category where fewer rivals are able to compete.The Super Duty is a unique offering in the Australian market. Much more than simply another Ranger variant, the Super Duty is almost entirely new underneath, with an up-gauged frame, new suspension, heavy duty axles and even a new transfer case. These allow it up to 8000kg of GCM and push it into a category above most dual-cabs.“The initial response has been incredible," said Henderson. “Right back from when we first announced the nameplate - we were flooded with a response we’ve never seen before.”While he wouldn’t yet share numbers - these should become available around this time next month when the first round of VFACTs figures drop for 2026, he said the models available now were just the beginning of what the true volume the new ute has to offer.“The more retail pick-up and XLT are launching later this year, and we’ve got really strong order banks for those as well. The response has been really overwhelming,” he said.While the true scope of Super Duty is yet to be seen, Ford can chalk up a handful of other segment wins despite being slightly down for the year, by 5.8 per cent. The Ranger-based Everest off-roader is number one in the Large SUV segment, while Mustang leads the sports car pack. Plus, the brand had a record year for its Transit van range.There are storm clouds on the horizon for Ford. Rivals are circling with new options and the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which places heavy fines on high-emitting engines such as Ford’s diesel V6, poses a threat as Ford is not selling enough electric cars to help alleviate its fleet average.The critically well-received Mustang Mach-e for example, only found 483 homes over the course of 2025.“We’re in the most competitive automotive market in the world — within that, everyone is fighting really hard,” Henderson said.“We’re happy with the performance we have in that EV area, but we’ll have more transitional technologies over time.”“If you think about where Ford does really well in providing that capability to travel around Australia and be able to do those kinds of 4x4 activities - there still needs to be more of an investment from an infrastructure point of view to make those things more viable,” he said.

It’s 2026, and this year will mark a decade since Ford ended manufacturing in Australia, with Holden and Toyota also ending local production a year later. So, who’s making the cars we love now? And by who, we mean which countries?Here are the top five countries that made our favourite cars in 2025.Australia’s love of European cars is ongoing but that appears to be coming off the boil slightly with 2025 sales of cars built in Germany dropping to 54,905, down by 2639 units on the year before.Doing the heavy lifting are models such as the Volkswagen Tiguan and Golf, along with the Mercedes-Benz GLC and GLA SUVs which are made in Germany for Australia.It’s unlikely Aussies will stop treating themselves to cars from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen anytime soon, if ever. But as you will see the gap between prestige-niche (prest-niche?) and mainstream models could grow increasingly larger as Chinese offerings head further upmarket while keeping prices low.Hyundai and Kia are the big two Korean carmakers, with KGM (formerly SsangYong) struggling but still hanging on. Between the three they made 149,966 of the cars bought by Aussies in 2025. That’s down from 157,760 in 2024.Australians love models such as the Hyundai Kona and Santa Fe and Kia Sportage which are all made in Korea for our market. The drop in the number of Korean-made cars we bought could be attributed to the biggest mover in the top five manufacturers. Enter China.Number three today, number two tomorrow? Possibly sooner. The popularity of Chinese-made cars accelerated dramatically from 2024 to 2025, the overall number going from 176,159 to 221,699. Yes, an increase of 45,540 cars (+26 per cent), almost the total amount of German-made cars sold in 2025. Impressive.Chinese-made models such as the BYD Shark 6 ute, GWM Haval Jolion and MG ZS SUV have been snapped up by Aussies in their tens of thousands.As with any race, the battle between third and second place is often more riveting than what’s going on in first and China is breathing down the neck of Thailand right now.It might surprise you (or not at all) to know that Thailand came in second place for 2025. But only just, with 249,958 cars made for Aussies, which is down from 272,139 in 2024.What cars does Thailand make? Pretty much every ute on sale in Australia and utes are hugely popular here.Yep, from the Ford Ranger, Isuzu D-Max and Mazda BT-50 to the Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Toyota HiLux. Thailand is a ute powerhouse.Japan is our winner for 2025 as the country which makes more cars that we buy than any other nation. Japan made 358,981 of the cars Aussies bought and that’s up from 241,296 in 2024. Carrying the heavy end of this big number is Toyota with firm Aussie favourites such as the RAV4, Corolla, Camry, Corolla Cross, Land Cruiser and Prado.By now you know the Toyota HiLux is made in Thailand, but did you know the Kluger is built in the United States for Australia? You do now.

The Australian new car market is going through one of its biggest changes to date.A wave of budget-focused Chinese brands has washed over the market in the past two years, eating away into the sales of many established carmakers.The emergence of new technologies such as hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles will change the cars we drive forever.Despite that, some things have stayed the same. Diesel-powered utes and 4WDs are the dominant force in Aussie motoring, but new models are snapping at their heels.Here are the best selling 100 vehicles in Australia during the past year.

These are officially Australia's favourite cars.

Ford Australia has a popularity problem. By that I mean, the Ranger is so popular it is Australia’s best-selling new vehicle any given month, but at a time when the government is looking to crack down on emissions. The New Vehicle Efficiency Standards (NVES) have been designed to motivate both car makers and customers alike to choose a new vehicle with lower emissions.This is part of the reason why Ford has invested so much time and effort into adding the Ranger plug-in hybrid to its range. But, unfortunately for Ford Australia, buyers so far seem pretty happy to stick with good old fashioned turbo-diesel power. So, as we look at the missing pieces across several of Australia’s leading car brands, there is a very obvious gap in the Ford line-up - a small or mid-size SUV powered by either a plug-in hybrid or all-electric powertrain to help offset all those diesel Ranger emissions under NVES.Under the Federal Government’s policy it will penalise car makers for not getting their vehicles below a mandated CO2 emissions target. The good news is a car maker can effectively offset those vehicles over the limit by claiming ‘credits’ for its vehicles that are below the threshold. Obviously electric cars are rated with zero CO2 emissions, so enjoy the most credits.The problem for Ford is that its biggest selling models are the diesel-powered Ranger and Everest and the V8-powered Mustang. That trio accounts for more than 90 per cent of Ford Australia’s total volume. The all-electric Mustang Mach-E is less than one per cent of the company’s local sales.So, what Ford would likely love is for a more popular SUV, that could help both with NVES but also grow sales. Ford simply gave up on the SUV market, dropping the Escape, despite it being the biggest single segment of the market. It also dropped the Puma and Endura, leaving the Everest to fight on alone.It’s believed Ford will add the Chinese-built Bronco sometime in the not-too-distant future, and the range-extender mid-size SUV could be just what the brand needs at this moment in time. It’s powered by a 110kW 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine and electric motor, which is powered by a BYD battery to provide over 200km of range.What’s more, it’s a Bronco. The Escape was a perfectly fine mid-size SUV, but it was very easy to overlook in a crowded and highly competitive market, which is not something you can say about the Bronco.This is arguably Ford’s best chance of reestablishing itself into the mid-size SUV market. Hopefully being built in China allows it to be price competitive and Ford Australia can stop being so reliant on the Ranger for its success.