Where would Australia be without light-duty trucks? They’re found in their thousands crisscrossing our cities and regional centres, with all manner of bodies from service trucks to tray trucks, tippers to reefers, tradie trucks, off-road trucks and just about any other format you can imagine.
In new vehicles the market is dominated by the Japanese big three – Isuzu, Hino and Fuso – but there’s a massive market of older used models also plying our roads, distribution centres and work sites.
Here are the light-duty brands and models, both new and used, that were the most searched for across our many trucksales listings in 2024…
Isuzu is Australia's top-selling truck brand in Australia and has been for over three decades, and one of the Japanese brand’s mainstays is its light-duty N Series. Encompassing a wide range of car-licence-friendly models, as well as heavier examples, it was the Isuzu NPR that attracted the most attention here at trucksales through the year, in both 4x2 and 4x4 drivelines, along with the compact but potent NLR 45 150.
Coming in second in our light-duty listings through the year was Fuso’s answer to the Isuzu N Series, the Fuso Canter. With broad interest across its many derivatives, interest in older Canter model was underlined by the many people still searching for Mitsubishi Canter models, even though the Canter has fallen under the Daimler Trucks umbrella for many years.
Rounding out our light-duty podium is the Hino 300 Series which, like the Isuzu N Series and Fuso Canter, comes in a wide variety of individual variants. The Hino 300 616 was particularly popular, while – as we saw with the Mitsubishi Canter, above – there were still plenty of people searching for the far older Hino Dutro.
Sitting in fourth place for our light-duty stock listing searches for 2024 was the IVECO Daily, the cab-chassis iteration of IVECO’s light-duty model, also commonly found in a van format. Found at the lightest end of IVECO’s comprehensive commercial vehicle offerings, in car-licence-friendly models up to the 7-tonne GVM van, there was strong interest in the IVECO Daily in both 4x2 and 4x4 models.
Sneaking in at number five is a relative newcomer to our shores, Foton. The Chinese giant offers both diesel and electric models in Australia, the latter (the T5) under the banner of Foton Mobility, but it was the fossil-fueled Foton Aumark that was attracting the highest number of stock listing searches here at trucksales.