2025 saw the end of a handful of long-running nameplates, but you’ll still see some of them around… sort of.
The Toyota Supra, for example, will still be seen on racetracks; the Hyundai i30 Hatch can still be bought in hot N guise; and the Mazda 6 is being replaced by a vehicle called the 6e, so just one letter off.
A handful of premium models are shuffling off for good, though: the Audi S8 and Volvo S60 and V60 Cross Country.
MORE: Every SUV, ute and van discontinued in Australia in 2025
Audi S8
Orders for the last surviving member of Audi’s full-size limousine range in Australia closed in July, though at the time of writing the sporty S8 remains on the brand’s website.
The S8 was the last member of the A8 family standing in the Australian market, marrying the short-wheelbase body style with a twin-turbo petrol V8 engine and featuring some subtly sporty design cues.
Audi also closed orders for the A7 Sportback, though it lives on in Australia in hot twin-turbo V8-powered RS7 guise.
The upper end of Audi’s passenger car range is going through upheaval. There’s a new generation of A6 Sedan and Avant, plus the similarly sized electric A6 e-tron and A6 Avant e-tron, but none of these have been confirmed for Australia.
While these new models have many years ahead of them in markets like Europe, the A8 and S8’s future is looking uncertain. They’re due to exit production by the end of 2026.
The current fourth-generation A8 and S8 entered production late in 2017, which means they’re close to a decade old now, and yet no replacement has been announced, combustion-powered or otherwise.
MORE: Audi Australia culls more passenger cars in increasingly SUV-heavy lineup
Hyundai i30 Hatch
The Hyundai i30 nameplate lives on for 2026, but if you want a hatchback you now need to step up to the high-performance i30 N hot hatch following the end of production for the core i30 Hatch lineup in December.
That brings an end to regular i30 Hatch models in Australia after almost 20 years, though they’ll continue to be produced in Czechia for markets like Europe.
Hyundai Australia switched to sourcing the regular i30 Hatch from Czechia last year (the hot N already came from there) following the end of Korean production.
While that allowed Hyundai to offer a significantly more efficient turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol powertrain, it also forced up the price of importing the small hatch.
Perhaps because of this, Hyundai chose to only bring well-specified N Line and N Line Premium trim levels, though they were still $3500 to $3700 pricier than the variants they replaced, while the base price of the lineup soared by $12,000.
Hyundai combines sales figures for the i30 Hatch and i30 Sedan in monthly VFACTS sales reports, despite the latter – known elsewhere as the Avante or Elantra – being a larger vehicle based on a different platform. The company has previously confirmed hatchbacks accounted for 80 per cent of i30 sales prior to the change of sourcing.
It’s unclear how much the move to a pricier, Czech-sourced model hurt the i30 Hatch, though with overall i30 deliveries down 13.2 per cent this year to the end of November 30, it’s clear some damage was dealt.
MORE: Hyundai i30 Hatch axed in Australia
Mazda 6
Technically, in 2026 you’ll be able to get something called a Mazda 6 in local showrooms. But look closely and you’ll see a little ‘e’ after that 6, and then take a good look and you’ll see it’s a drastically different vehicle.
That’s because the new Mazda 6e is a revised version of the Deepal L07, a Chinese electric liftback.
Mazda has been gradually retiring its homegrown Mazda 6 globally, with Australia being one of the last markets it was still on sale. It remains on price lists in a handful of markets such as Thailand and Vietnam, but it’s surely running out of runway given it entered production all the way back in 2012.
What finally felled the shapely sedan and wagon in Australia was Australian Design Rule 98/00, a new regulation mandating autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems that meet specific technical requirements across all new vehicles on sale.
While it had received numerous updates here since 2012, the Mazda 6 was showing its age. Nevertheless, it plugged on even as rival brands like Ford, Kia and Subaru exited the segment, though it was long a distant second to the top-selling Toyota Camry and in recent years was overtaken by the BYD Seal.
Now, Mazda has a Seal rival reaching local showrooms, but is ceding the combustion-powered mid-size market to an evaporating pool of competitors headlined by the Camry.
MORE: Mazda 6: Long-running family sedan and wagon axed in Australia
Toyota Supra
The Toyota Supra nameplate lay dormant for 17 years before returning in 2019 on a new sports coupe developed with BMW.
Indeed, one of the most iconic of Japanese sports car nameplates found itself on a vehicle that, underneath its shapely skin, was effectively a hard-top BMW Z4. It was even built in Austria, not Japan.
It was a curious fusion of Japanese and German in an entertaining package. Nissan would follow a very different strategy with its rival Z, launched here in 2023. Despite also having an iconic name and a boosted six-cylinder engine, the latest Z-car is based on an overhauled version of the old 370Z platform.
This simpler, more conventional approach saw the Nissan overtake the Toyota in the sales race, though this year the Supra has clawed back ground.
Alas, Toyota Australia announced in August it was closing orders. Production of the GR Supra will end in 2026, but you’ll nevertheless be seeing a lot of it moving forward. That’s because this Austrian-built, German-derived Japanese sports car will be participating in that most Australian of competitions: Supercars.
It’ll therefore join the Chevrolet Camaro in being a Supercars model that can’t be purchased by customers.
Toyota is on a sports car tear at the moment, establishing Gazoo Racing as a bona-fide brand, revealing the GR GT supercar, and teasing the return of the Celica and MR2. Another generation of Supra isn’t outside the realm of possibility, then, at least not with petrol-head Akio Toyoda as chairman.
Earlier this year, Toyota launched a Track Edition with retuned steering and suspension, but Australia has missed out on the Final Edition which pumps out 320kW of power and 570Nm of torque – up 35kW and 70Nm on Australian-market Supras including the Track Edition.
MORE: Toyota Supra dead in Australia, will live on in Supercars
Volvo S60 and V60
After axing the S90 in 2019, and the V90 Cross Country in 2021, Volvo Car Australia finally pulled the plug on the slow-selling S60 and V60 Cross Country this year. The latter remains available overseas in select markets.
The jacked-up V60 Cross Country had arrived here in 2021, replacing the regular V60 wagon. Its more SUV-like styling theoretically should have been more appealing in an SUV-hungry market like ours, but sales actually dropped at first compared with the sleeker V60 it replaced, rising to 195 units in 2023 before falling again.
For context, Volvo sold more than 12 times as many XC60s that year than V60 Cross Countrys.
As for the S60, it sold just as poorly as its wagon sibling. Last year, Volvo Car Australia delivered just 153 examples each of the S60 and V60 Cross Country, which saw them outsold by even the oft-overlooked Alfa Romeo Giulia. It’s a long way from annual tallies of 800-plus units seen during the first and second generations of the S60.
The S60 has suffered from a continued swing away from sedans in the Australian market, which had already claimed the life of the flagship S90.
Volvo has over time become heavily dependent on its SUV models. And while it launched a new passenger car this year in the ES90, this liftback has an SUV-like high-riding stance.
While this new electric flagship can’t be compared directly to the departed V60 Cross Country, it remains to be seen whether it’s sufficiently SUV-like to appeal to buyers. Evidently, the V60 Cross Country wasn’t.
MORE: Volvo’s last wagon in Australia hits the end of the road
