16 February 2015
TOYOTA COROLLA: AN ‘OVERNIGHT’ SUCCESS… AFTER 48 YEARS!
Australia’s best-selling car for the past two years, Toyota Corolla, has recorded another significant achievement by passing 1.3 million sales in Australia.
The milestone Corolla was sold during January, cementing Corolla’s place in Australian automotive history as Toyota’s most successful model.
Toyota Australia’s executive director sales and marketing Tony Cramb said Corolla accounts for more than one-fifth of the company’s entire sales in this country.
In 2013, Corolla became the first Toyota to top the nation’s sales charts – and last year it retained the title of Australia’s best-selling car in the face of tough competition.
“You might say that, after 48 years in Australian showrooms, Corolla has become an overnight success,” Mr Cramb said.
“Of course, the truth is Corolla has always been popular because it is fuel-efficient, affordable, dependable, fun to drive and just the right size for a wide range of customer needs.
“These strong customer appeal factors, underpinned by progressive styling, refined comfort and Toyota’s superior quality, have captured the imagination of the buying public over almost half a century.
“Corolla has also played a major role in building the reputation of Toyota in Australia and around the world with buyers taking confidence from a remarkable heritage in which Australia has featured prominently.”
In November 1966, just one month after Corolla debuted in Japan, Australia was the first country to receive Corolla exports with 15 cars being shipped from Japan. They went on sale the following year.
Australia was also the first country outside Japan to build the car with local production from 1968 until 1999 totalling more than 666,000 vehicles.
Corolla achieved early motorsport success at the Bathurst enduro, followed by a string of victories in touring car racing and rallying.
The popular car’s sales have grown from strength to strength in this country. It took more than eight years for the first 100,000 Corollas to be sold after its introduction in 1967. The most recent 100,000 sales took just two years and five months.
Annual sales reached 20,000 for the first time in 1975, climbed through the 30,000 mark in 2000 and topped the 40,000 milestone in 2005.
Corolla became a “millionaire” in Australia in September 2007, reaching one million local sales just four months after celebrating its 40th anniversary in Australia.
In the past 10 years, Toyota Australia has delivered an average of more than 43,000 Corolla sedans and hatches a year.
Corolla became the world’s best-selling nameplate in 1997 when cumulative global sales exceeded 22.656 million units. The total has now grown to more than 41 million cars.
During its entire production run, a Corolla has been sold somewhere in the world approximately every 37 seconds.
The name Corolla is Latin for “crown of flowers”. It was chosen because Toyota in Japan hoped its new car would bloom in world markets.
For details of Corolla’s history, visit: www.toyota-global.com/showroom/vehicle_heritage/corolla.
The Corolla hatch and sedan range in Australia is powered by a 103kW 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine with dual variable valve timing.
The hatch range is priced from $19,990* and the sedan range from $20,740*.
Every new Corolla is covered by Toyota Service Advantage. The capped price is $140 for each of up to six scheduled services in the first three years or 60,000km**.
|
COROLLA MILESTONES IN AUSTRALIA |
|
|
SALES |
YEAR |
|
Introduced |
1967 |
|
100,000 |
1975 |
|
200,000 |
1979 |
|
300,000 |
1983 |
|
400,000 |
1987 |
|
500,000 |
1991 |
|
600,000 |
1995 |
|
700,000 |
1999 |
|
800,000 |
2003 |
|
900,000 |
2005 |
|
1,000,000 |
2007 |
|
1.1 million |
2010 |
|
1.2 million |
2012 |
|
1.3 million |
2015 (Jan) |