Australia’s most popular SUV in 2025, the Toyota RAV4, slipped out of the top 20 best-selling models list in February as rivals such as the even older Mazda CX-5 took full advantage of dwindling stocks.
With a sixth-generation successor set to land in showrooms next month, the outgoing RAV4 found just 723 new homes last month (February 2026), down from 1,757 in January and 4,405 in February 2025. So far this year, RAV4 sales are down 73.8 percent year-over-year.
However, Toyota Australia says it is not worried about the outcome as it is running out of existing RAV4s – despite price increases of up to $6,000 for the new model and a nearly $4,000 increase for the entry-level GX variant.
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“Our February sales were consistent with our 2026 plans,” Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing John Pappas said in a statement.
“We expected a stable start to the year as we transitioned to the all-new RAV4 and it is pleasing that most of our current generation RAV4 vehicles have been sold and customer demand remains strong across the Toyota range.”
With 51,947 sales in the full 12 months of 2025, the RAV4 was Toyota’s best-selling model last year, ahead of the HiLux ute and Australia’s most popular SUV, behind the best-selling Ford Ranger.
The in-demand mid-size SUV helped Toyota rank No. 1 in Australia for the 23rd consecutive year with sales of 239,863, just shy of its record of 241,296 in 2024 – the highest of any car brand in Australian history.
But while sales for the fifth-generation RAV4, first launched in 2018, slumped, its arch-rival Mazda CX-5 – whose second generation dates back to 2016 and is also in sell-out mode – recorded 2,099 sales, securing fifth place overall and becoming the best-selling midsize SUV last month and so far this year, with sales up 15.4 percent year-on-year.
A new third-generation CX-5 will arrive in local showrooms in the second half of 2026. Prices and equipment levels will be announced later.
Mazda Australia told Daily Sparkz Ahead of the launch of the new CX-5, no sales decline like that of the RAV4 is expected, although the ongoing popularity and sales rate of the existing model could lead to stock shortages, making it difficult to maintain the solid start to the new year.
Toyota previously suffered a delay in the arrival of the new-generation Prado after its arch-rival, the Ford Everest, outsold it for the first time in 2024 – and again last year, even after the new model was launched.
Across the industry, Tesla cited model changes in early 2025 as a reason for slower sales of both its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV around the world.
Toyota remained Australia’s number one car brand in February 2026, with 13,606 sales, almost double second-place Mazda’s 7042 and third-place Ford’s 6907.
Still, Toyota suffered the biggest decline of any brand in the top 10, with its 27.8 percent year-on-year sales decline much larger than the overall market’s 2.7 percent decline last month.
MORE: Explore the Toyota RAV4 showroom
