If you thought a trip through Melbourne’s exclusive Toorak would involve spotting plenty of Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Aston Martins – you’d be right.
But new data from the ABS Motor Vehicle Census showing the most popular car brand in each Australian postcode has revealed a few surprising results, like Mount Pleasant, near Wollongong, in NSW, where you’ll find 11 Hummers.
And just down the road, in Avondale, you’ll find the only three Winnebagos camper vans registered in Australia.
The most popular car brand Australia-wide is still Toyota, even though the last manufacturing facility in Australia closed in 2017 (Toyota Hilux pictured)
While Toyota is the most popular brand across Australia, with some suburbs home to three times as many cars from the Japanese manufacturer than traditional Australian favourites, Holden and Ford.
Even in Bathurst, in western NSW, home of the famous Bathurst 1000 that’s home to the traditional Ford and Holden rivalry, Toyota sells more cars than any other brand.
David Chalke, principal of The Strategy Planning Group – a market research firm that monitors consumer trends – told The Daily Telegraph it was natural for people to buy a car that fit the status quo of the suburb where they lived.
‘People tend to aggregate in communities with people like themselves and a car purchase is the ultimate demonstration to the outside world of who you are,’ Chalke said.
And most of the suburbs captured by the data, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, are true to this reputation.
Toorak has the highest number of Ferraris (65), Bentleys (57), Rolls-Royce (39) and Aston Martins (33) in Australia.
But the most common brand of car in Toorak is the luxury brand Mercedes-Benz – and it is the only suburb that doesn’t have a more reasonably priced brand as its top seller.
Elsewhere in Victoria, Geelong shows loyalty to the once locally built Ford – reflected in the brand edging Holden as the preferred ride.
Melbourne’s south-eastern suburb of Toorak is known for luxury cars, and has the most Porsches, Aston Martins, Rolls-Royce and Ferraris in Australia (Ferrari 488GTB shown)
In Brisbane, the suburbs of Ascot, Hawthorne and New Farm have plenty of luxury cars parked in driveways.
However, throughout Queensland, you are more likely to see residents driving Toyotas, Mazdas and Volkswagens.
Sydney, meanwhile, has a penchant for Ferraris, with 27 on the streets of the city.
But in Melbourne, perhaps surprisingly, there are twice as many Ferraris.
At the other end of the spectrum, the most of tiny Smart cars will be found in the overcrowded streets of Darlinghurst, Balmain and Bondi in Sydney.
In Adelaide, the exclusive suburbs of Unley Park, Hyde Park and Malvern, are where the most luxury German cars, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW are garaged – rather than on the outskirts of the city.
While suburbs with a reputation for being wealthier do have the most luxury vehicles (Lamborghini Aventador, most commonly found in Richmond, Victoria)
There will almost always be more reasonably-priced options (Toyota Yaris pictured)