CarAdvice.com.au has outlined the winners, losers and new car sales trends in its summary of October VFACTS data.

The industry as a whole performed well during October with sales climbing 3.4 per cent to 94,321, the second biggest October on record after 2012. This puts the market on track to beat previous full-year sales of 1.136 million new car sales in 2013.

The new Toyota HiLux took pole position in the top 10 best-selling vehicles, with Toyota vehicles a hit generally given it had four out of the top ten best-sellers. It was once again easily the top-selling branddespite an overall fall of 2.4 per cent.

Full of the usual favourites, the Top Ten included HiLux, Toyota Corolla; Hyundai i30; Ford Ranger; Mazda 3; Holden Commodore; Toyota Camry; Mazda CX-5; Volkswagen Golf and Toyota RAV4.

The top 10 brands in order were: Toyota; Hyundai; Mazda; Holden; Ford; Nissan; Mitsubishi; Volkswagen; Subaru and Honda.

Small passenger cars, such as the Corolla, i30 and Mazda 3, remained the top overall segment despite a 10.2 per cent drop, ceding ground to small SUVs which were up by 37 per cent. Other fast-growing segments were people-movers (up 35.3 per cent), mid-sized cars (up 8.3 per cent) and SUVs of almost every size and price.

Interestingly, sports cars were down 23.6 per cent, though the just-launched Mazda MX-5 bucked this trend significantly in its category.  The high-end sports car market (>$200k) also underwent an increase of 8.1 per cent on October 2014.

Finally, Volkswagen sales were down 6 per cent last month compared with October 2014 to 4480 units. It’s the first time Volkswagen hasn’t achieved year-on-year growth since December 2014, and it’s the brand’s biggest deficit since November 2014.

Interesting facts:

• Fiat Chrysler Automobiles staple brands Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Jeep all fell double-digits.

• It was not a good month to be French. Citroen (69, down 43 per cent), Peugeot (332, down 17 per cent) and Renault (798, down 26.2 per cent) all went the wrong way.

• Mercedes-Benz went backwards (down 16.9 per cent) for the first time in a long while.

• Huge discounts from Volvo saw its sales more than double to 469.

• The Audi Q5 still dominated the SUV Medium > $60K segment, with 407 sales, despite the stop-sale of diesel versions