Drive
Will sedans ever make a comeback?
There was a time when the big sedan was the perfect car for a big country – and the sales figures reflected that.
by Toby Hagon
Published
9 min read
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Drive
8 min readDrive
There was a time when the big sedan was the perfect car for a big country – and the sales figures reflected that.
by Toby Hagon
Published
9 min read
Text size
by Toby Hagon
Published
Text size
In the 1990s and early 2000s the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon regularly topped the sales charts, with most of them four-door sedans that proved popular with business executives before eventually finding their way into suburban driveways.
Between them, those two models could account for almost one in five new vehicle sales across Australia.
The peak was in 1998, when the Commodore accounted for almost 95,000 sales.
Throw in other popular four-doors such as the Toyota Camry, Mazda6, Mitsubishi Magna, Subaru Liberty and Honda Accord, and those booted four-doors were the undisputed powerhouses of the new car market.
Fast forward to 2025 and it’s a very different world.
The sedans that once dominated have withered against an onslaught of new models and body styles from a broader selection of manufacturers.
A plethora of once big household names no longer exist, including the Falcon and Commodore.
The Ford Mondeo, Mazda6, Holden Vectra, Subaru Liberty, Mitsubishi Magna, Nissan Maxima and Toyota Aurion are others that have been confined to history. And the Honda Accord is now a niche player in a more hotly contested four-wheeled world.
Sedans such as the BMW 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Audi A4 that were once an attractive entry point to the prestige world have been overshadowed by their SUV equivalents.
There are two things that helped decimate the sedan market in Australia: utes and SUVs.
Aussies have always loved a ute. But the load luggers we used to buy were often basic workhorses and many of them were derivatives of the Holden and Ford passenger cars of the day. It was a simple formula that worked well.
Then the dual-cab ute came to prominence.
As well as heading off-road – 4x4 versions now account for more than 90 per cent of ute sales – the ute grew up, literally and figuratively.
Utes are not only physically bigger than ever, but they’ve also adopted the passenger car creature comforts and safety features that families demand.
Far from a pure workhorse, the modern ute is akin to a Swiss Army Knife that can perform multiple tasks, not only lifting heavy things but also delivering the space and comfort families want.
Being able to hold bikes and surfboards in the tray is a bonus.
The even bigger change to the new car market is SUVs, which are these days the default family car.
Whereas Aussies used to buy chunky wagons to go off-road, they now buy them to sit a bit higher off the ground and fit more gear in. It doesn’t hurt that many have an adventurous design ethos.
The former executive director of sales, marketing and aftersales for Holden, John Elsworth, says the sheer volume of SUVs of all shapes and sizes made life tougher for the sedan.
“It gave people heaps of choice for a family car,” he said, adding that the better space utilisation also meant in many instances families could downsize the vehicle footprint while having enough space inside.
“A family getting out of a large sedan could still get into a mid-sized SUV.”
Australia isn’t out of step with the move away from sedans. SUVs have changed the cars people buy across the globe.
However, there are areas where four-doors with a regular boot are still popular. China is the most prominent of those while the Middle East also still appreciates a sedan.
It seems that traditional body style is still something of a status symbol in some parts of the world, ensuring healthy demand, even among the onslaught of SUVs.
As well as being the biggest consumer of new cars, China also builds more than any other nation.
And it’s the Chinese manufacturers that are looking to capitalise on domestic demand that are most active in the sedan space (that said, with its Camry and Corolla that are sold around the world, Toyota is claimed to be the top-selling manufacturer of sedans globally).
Many of the sedans from China are small to mid-sized models that play in the more affordable end of the market.
The design of the sedan has also changed with the times.
Traditionally, sedans have had a boxy roof and defined boot. There’s been an air of conservatism to the way the cabin has been laid out and the mechanicals placed around it.
But modern four-door sedans sometimes don’t look much like a sedan at all. Some have coupe-inspired profiles with a roofline that drops away to give it a sportier look. Others have shortened boots that sometimes blend into the rear window.
Throw in modern lights and curves as well as some crisp lines and the sedan of 2025 is a very different beast to what Australians once knew.
Whereas once the goal was to maximise interior space, these days it’s as much about ensuring a car turns heads and to an extent, aerodynamics.
The latest Toyota Prius is a case in point. The most stylish of the breed, the only generation Prius that hasn’t been sold in Australia (Toyota is re-evaluating bringing it here due to renewed interest) looks modern, with bodywork that reinforces its futuristic positioning.
In line with the shift in family cars generally, sedans have also been moving upmarket. That’s in part due to the change in who is making the buying decisions.
The foundation of large sedan sales was once company fleets and government departments.
They weren’t particularly fussed about too much fruit – leather seats, electric windows, among other things that were once considered a luxury – and instead wanted a solid tool of trade vehicle. Space seemed enough of a selling point.
But the rise of user-chooser buyers – where the driver gets a budget and can choose the model they want – has seen buying habits change enormously.
That shift away from basic vehicles has seen sedans adopt technology at a ferocious rate.
Sure, that’s largely in line with the rest of the market, but they arguably had further to travel given where they’d come from. And Tesla has pushed that ethos to the extreme.
The Tesla Model 3 that arrived in 2019 sparked a resurgence in sedan interest.
It was instantly popular and eventually overtook the Toyota Camry to become not only the top selling sedan in the country but also the top selling passenger car (so excluding utes and SUVs).
It was a remarkable feat, knocking the Camry off a sales perch it had held for 28 years.
And while much of the Model 3’s sales success has no doubt been from its electric drivetrain, it’s also added new levels of technology to the mainstream sedan market.
Just as the iPhone redefined the mobile phone market, Tesla has helped reshape cars.
Some consider a Tesla a computer on wheels. Its vast centre screen is the nerve centre of the car, it has cameras all around to monitor traffic and even keep an eye on the car when it’s parked, and its software can be updated remotely in the same way a smartphone adds features and functionality.
China’s BYD – the most serious rival to Tesla for EV sales – has enjoyed success with its Seal sedan. Others are taking notice.
Mazda is currently testing an all-electric sedan in Australia. The made-in-China 6e could effectively fill the space vacated by the Mazda6 earlier this year.
Nissan Australia also has its hand up for the N7 that is conceptually similar to the 6e: sourced from a Chinese partner and designed to tackle the Tesla wave. Nissan is building a business case to bring the N7 Down Under.
“The mindset was that the sedan space was – in inverted commas – dead,” says Andrew Humberstone, Nissan Oceania managing director, hinting that the N7 is very much in the crosshairs.
“Then we saw some new entrants coming in … largely from the Chinese … and there was a significant resurgence of product. Is there an opportunity (for a modern sedan)? Potentially.
It’s part of the wish list. It’s all being looked at and considered.”
All of which sounds like it will only be a matter of time until Australians have more futuristic sedans to choose from.
Sedans generally have benefits over their SUV equivalents and much of it comes down to the way they drive.
Despite being longer, the Mazda6 is around 60kg lighter than the equivalent CX-5. With the same engine it also uses a fraction less fuel (7.0 litres per 100km versus 7.2L/100km).
It’s a similar story with sedans from other manufacturers, from mainstream to luxury.
The lower centre of gravity of a sedan compared with its SUV equivalent allows engineers to employ a more supple suspension tune without risking excessive leaning through corners.
That’s one reason Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley, believes sales of the Camry will grow.
“There’s been a lot of people who’ve driven in Camrys as rental vehicles and ride share vehicles and when they ride in them, they realise how spacious and how nice they are,” he says.
Of course, there are negatives with sedans. Sitting lower in the car can reduce your view over higher traffic.
The big question is whether sedans will once again be popular. You could argue they’ve already begun that journey, spurred on by electric cars.
Publicly released local sales figures no longer split out sales of sedans. But they show that regular passenger cars – sedans, hatches and wagons – make up only 17 per cent of the market.
That’s well down on the 75 per cent share of the mid-1990s.
But over the last five years, the mid-sized sedan has made a comeback of sorts, with Tesla, BYD, and BMW all enjoying healthy demand for their electric four-doors.
While it won’t ever return to the heyday of the breed, Hanley is convinced the sedan has more room for growth.
“The sedan is definitely not dead,” said the Toyota executive. “The sedan market in an era of electrification will kind of come back into its own. I don’t expect it to be better than the SUV market in sheer volume, but it’ll have a place in the Australian automotive segment.”
