Toyota cars for sale

Overview

Toyota has been Australia’s best-selling car brand for more than two decades — 239,863 sales and a 19.3 per cent market share in 2025 — and the reasons show up the moment you shop used: legendary reliability, a dealer and parts network that reaches every corner of the country, and resale values that consistently top the market.

From the HiLux and LandCruiser that dominate work sites and outback tracks to the Corolla and RAV4 that fill suburban driveways, a used Toyota is the closest thing to a safe default in Australian motoring.

History

Kiichiro Toyoda founded the company on 28 August 1937, spinning it out of Toyota Industries, the loom manufacturer his father Sakichi had built. The spelling changed from Toyoda to Toyota in 1936 because the latter takes eight brush strokes in Japanese, a lucky number. The first engine came in 1934, the first truck in 1935, and the first passenger car — the AA — in April 1936.

The Toyopet Crown of 1955 was the first vehicle Toyota designed and built entirely itself. The Corolla, launched in 1966, became the best-selling car in history. Lexus was created in 1989, and the first-generation Prius arrived in December 1997, establishing a two-decade lead in hybrid technology that the rest of the industry is still closing.

In Australia

Toyota manufactured in Australia at Altona in Victoria for decades, building the Camry and Aurion for local sale and export. It announced its exit on 10 February 2014 and ended production at the close of 2017, reducing its workforce from 3,900 to about 1,300 as it became an import-only operation. The Altona site now houses the company’s hydrogen centre.

Buying a used Toyota

The hybrid range deserves special mention. Toyota has built hybrids since the late 1990s, and its RAV4, Corolla and Camry hybrids routinely return real-world fuel figures under 5L/100km without ever needing a charging cable — a big part of why they hold their value so well second-hand.

Toyotas with a full service history command a premium for good reason: capped-price servicing keeps maintenance records tidy, and well-kept examples regularly sail past 300,000 km. Check the odometer against the service book, but expect even higher-mileage cars to have plenty of life left. On a used HiLux or LandCruiser, inspect the underbody and look for evidence of heavy towing or hard off-road use.