Cars like the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and Honda CR-V were instrumental in cementing the success of their respective makers, but a lot more models form the colourful histories of some of Australia’s favourite auto brands.
Once again, we’re comparing the first models sold in Australia by several popular car manufacturers with their latest nameplates.
This time, we’re taking a look at BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Suzuki, Audi, and Honda, as they make up the next batch of auto brands in our trundle down Australia’s sales charts, continuing on from parts one and two of this series.
We’ve included only the newest nameplates released in Australia by each of these companies, though existing nameplates may have subsequently received new powertrains and variants more recently.
This is the third instalment in this feature series. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.
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BMW: 1600/1800/2000, iX2
BMW didn’t document its first car sold in Australia, not publicly anyway. While that makes it hard to pinpoint which nameplate appeared here first, confirmation of the German brand’s local arrival can be found in an issue of Wheels magazine from July 1966.
The magazine’s first local road test of a BMW was in September 1967, when a BMW 2000TI was reviewed in detail, though overseas reviews had already been published. The car was part of the then-new ‘Neue Klasse’ (New Class) line of sedans and coupes that entered production in 1962.
There were four successive models in this original Neue Klasse lineup – the 1500, 1600, 1800, and 2000, which were all very similar but had their own trim levels, engines, and market positions.
The first batch of official BMWs reportedly brought to Australia comprised just 16 cars (excluding possible earlier private imports), likely including at least the 1600, 1800, and 2000 – as indicated by new-car listings by industry guide RedBook for 1967. In fact, one of the original 2000 sedans from 1967 went up for auction in Canberra in 2018.
The 2000 was the last model introduced in the 1960s Neue Klasse family and was in production from 1966 to 1972. It utilised BMW’s M10 four-cylinder engine, as with its predecessors, but it was the only 2.0-litre version; earlier models were either 1.5L, 1.6L, or 1.8L, matching their designated nameplates.
It’s worth mentioning that this Neue Klasse line essentially helped BMW recover from its post-war financial crisis in the 1950s. Afterwards, new BMW 2002s were being sold and even raced by Australian franchise dealers by the mid-1970s, preceding the BMW Group’s official establishment of its BMW Australia subsidiary in 1979.
BMW then introduced the 3 Series, 5 Series, and 7 Series, and it was around this time that the BMW M division began producing performance versions of the brand’s standard cars; it launched as BMW’s motorsport division in 1972. Fun fact: the iconic BMW M1 sports car was launched one year before BMW Australia was established.
BMW Australia’s story from establishment to now is too detailed to cover in this article, though in 2014 it launched the i3 hatch as its first electric car, which leads us to its newest local nameplate. The electric iX2 was launched in November 2023, though technically it’s a derivative of the second-generation X2 small SUV.
If we’re talking nameplates never seen before, the newest BMW is the XM from 2022.
BMW is gearing up for a return of the Neue Klasse name, which is being used for a new platform that will underpin models like the all-new iX3 and i3 EVs soon to appear locally.
MORE: Explore the BMW showroom
Mercedes-Benz: 33/180 hp, CLE
Unsurprisingly, the first Mercedes-Benz car sold in Australia is practically impossible to track down. After much research, a likely candidate appears to be a model known as the 33/180 hp, sold around 1929 in extremely limited numbers.
Mind you, other reports suggest the first Mercedes model was brought to Australia in 1904, but it isn’t known exactly what that vehicle was. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t have been called a Mercedes-Benz, because that name only appeared after the Daimler-Benz merger in 1926.
It’s also known that several Mercedes-Benz trucks were imported here in the 1930s, with an official distributor confirmed to have sold truck and bus chassis in Western Australia in 1934. These vehicles were promoted for their simple operation and use of cheap crude oil as fuel, and many were utilised for industry evaluation in New South Wales and Victoria.
As for the 33/180 hp, it offered a 6.2-litre inline six-cylinder engine fitted with a supercharger adapted from the brand’s race cars. At full tilt, maximum power output was listed at 180 horsepower (134kW), hence the model’s name.
Otherwise, little is known about Mercedes-Benz vehicles imported here from then and into WWII, but what is known is that Mercedes-Benz Australia was founded in 1958.
In 1959, a push from the Australian government to bolster local manufacturing led to the establishment of a Mercedes-Benz factory in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The first Mercedes vehicle to be produced locally was a W180-chassis 220 S, built from a complete knock-down kit and finished in the same year.
Local production was short-lived though, wrapping up in 1965. Since then, Mercedes-Benz has expanded dramatically, with much of its local history too detailed to cover in this article.
As with the other two German brands on this list, many of Mercedes’ newest nameplates have been applied to electric vehicles. The EQC mid-size SUV was the brand’s first local EV, debuting in Australia in 2019, and it was the prelude to a raft of EQ-badged Benzes before being discontinued in 2023.
However, Mercedes-Benz’s newest nameplate in Australia is the CLE, a combustion-powered coupe and convertible that launched in 2024 to replace two-door versions of the C-Class and E-Class.
It was driven by the German brand’s need to streamline its combustion-powered model lineup, offering a sporty-ish model in an otherwise SUV-heavy range.
MORE: Explore the Mercedes-Benz showroom
Suzuki: LJ50, Fronx
Suzuki’s first car sold in Australia was the great-grandfather of its most popular local model today: the LJ50, otherwise known as the first-generation Jimny, in 1974.
The Jimny’s LJ series was Suzuki’s first true 4×4 recreational vehicle, and was introduced globally in 1970. In the family, there were several body styles, including an SUV, a convertible, and, from 1979, a pickup (known locally as the Stockman), a lineup consistent with other 4×4s produced by fellow Japanese brands around the same time.
What was different about the LJ was its tiny stature. Measuring as little as 2955mm long, depending on the body style, the original LJ50 was considerably smaller than the visually similar Toyota LandCruiser of the same era.
The LJ50 offered three seats, weighed just 600kg, and was powered by a 540cc three-cylinder two-stroke engine producing 24.6kW of power and 56Nm of torque. This configuration also offered larger differentials than models fitted with smaller engines and was targeted at the Australian market.
It’s worth noting that the first LJ50 was introduced locally by the Suzuki Auto Company, Suzuki’s first privately owned distributor. That company still exists but is now better known as Suzuki Queensland.
The official Suzuki Australia subsidiary was established in Sydney in 1980, now overseeing Suzuki Motorcycles nationally and Suzuki cars in all states and territories except Queensland and the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.
Since then, Suzuki has continued introducing small, affordable cars to the Australian market. These included the second-generation Jimny in 1981 (also rebadged as the Holden Drover), the Swift and Mighty Boy in 1983, the Vitara in 1988, and the Swift Sport in 2007.
But preceding most of that came the establishment of one of Suzuki’s most critical international subsidiaries. Maruti Suzuki, based in India, was founded in 1981 and has since become a manufacturing powerhouse, responsible even for some Australia-bound models like the Baleno and five-door Jimny XL.
The brand’s newest nameplate in Australia is sourced from Maruti Suzuki. That’s the Fronx, a mild-hybrid light SUV that launched locally in 2025 – the first new Suzuki sold here since new Australian safety regulations killed off multiple models, and essentially a sibling to the Baleno.
MORE: Explore the Suzuki showroom
Audi: Super 90, Q6 e-tron
The history of Audi-badged cars began in 1967, when 368 right-hand drive examples of the F103-series Super 90 were imported.
That doesn’t include the arrival of the first ‘Audi-adjacent’ car, though. Instead, that privilege goes to the DKW F5, a small car built by Auto Union that was imported to Melbourne in 1935. For those unaware, Auto Union was essentially Audi’s predecessor, as the Volkswagen Group acquired it and slowly morphed it into modern Audi by the mid-1980s.
There isn’t much to say about the F5, except that it was a front-wheel drive sedan built from 1935 to 1936 and sold in Australia through 1937. A fun fact is that it was the first of its model lineage to use a steel frame rather than a timber one.
Fast-forward to the Super 90, and much had changed in the Auto Union/Audi world. Volkswagen’s acquisition took place in 1964, one year before Audi introduced the F103 range. The F103 lineage began with the Audi 72, followed by the Super 80 and Super 90 in 1966.
The Super 90 was the first to be brought to Australia, and even took part in the 1967 Gallaher 500 race at Bathurst. The rules stipulated that at least 100 examples of each competing car had to be registered in Australia before September 30, 1967; 368 units were imported.
Like the DKW F5 that came well before it, the Super 90 was a front-wheel drive sedan. It was fitted with a 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine producing 66kW of power (90PS, hence the model’s name) and 147Nm of torque, making it the most powerful F103-series car.
Audi cars continued to be brought to Australia through independent distributors throughout the 1970s and 80s, as it wasn’t until 2001 that Audi Australia was properly established as the German brand’s national importer and distributor.
Audi’s model range has since grown drastically, now fielding a broad range of vehicles from small hatchbacks to iconic performance cars and large executive cars.
The brand’s newest local nameplate is the Q6 e-tron SUV, introduced to Australia in 2025.
It’s available in both SUV and Sportback body styles, as well as in multiple trim levels with varying power outputs. Being a Volkswagen Group product, it’s related to the Porsche Macan EV, which is sold in Australia, and the Audi A6 e-tron, which isn’t.
MORE: Explore the Audi showroom
Honda: T360/T500 or S600, ZR-V
Honda’s vehicles likely first descended on Australia in a multi-pronged attack. It’s believed that this included the T360 and T500 mini-trucks and the tiny S600 sports car, with the first registrations for all possibly occurring in 1965.
The T360 was Honda’s first production vehicle, launched in 1963. It was an incredibly important model for the brand, teaching it valuable lessons in research and development procedures, manufacturing logistics, and factory management.
Things moved quickly too, as once Honda completed a new factory to handle exceptional demand in 1964, a T360 was reported to have been churned out at the rate of one every ten minutes. In Australia, however, it’s possible the larger-engined T500 was more popular, as that car was built primarily for export markets.
Both trucks utilised small-displacement, high-revving four-cylinder engines inspired by Honda’s history of motorcycles. The T360 featured a 356cc unit, while the T500 upgraded to a 531cc engine – the latter a de-tuned version of the engine used in the Honda S500 sports car, which entered production four months after the T360.
The S500 never made its way to Australia, but its successor, the S600, did. It launched globally in early 1964 with a larger 606cc four-cylinder engine (still high-revving with peak power of 43kW arriving at 8500rpm), and the first shipment arrived in Australia later in 1964 with both convertible and coupe body styles.
Understandably, the S600 was very niche and sold in very few numbers. It was the N360 “Scamp” introduced in 1968 that was the first volume-selling Honda sold in Australia, and likely most Australians’ first encounter with a Honda car.
Honda Australia was established in 1969 to coordinate national car sales, making it Honda’s first international subsidiary set up primarily to handle automobiles rather than motorcycles. The brand’s motorcycles had already appeared locally in the mid-1950s.
Since its establishment, Honda has become one of Australia’s most recognisable brands. Sales peaked at around 50,000 units annually in the mid-2000s and late 2010s, though the shift to an agency model in 2021 dropped sales to roughly 14,000 units by 2024.
The first (and currently) only Honda introduced since the agency shift is the ZR-V, a small SUV that arrived locally in 2023 with turbo-petrol and hybrid options. It’s soon to be joined by the rebirth of the Prelude nameplate and the new kei-class Super-One electric vehicle in 2026.
