Tradies buying almost 40,000 Toyota HiLux utes a year have underpinned a solid 22 per cent increase in Toyota Australia's net profit to $236 million, just 15 months before the car maker shuts down its manufacturing operations in Melbourne. 
The HiLux in the first five months of 2016 is the biggest-selling new vehicle of any brand or type but is made overseas in Thailand for the Australian market, with Toyota's 2500 employees at the Altona plant in western Melbourne building Camry and Aurion sedans only.
Sales of the ute outstrip Toyota's smaller sedan model, the Corolla, which is also a big seller and an important contributor to the rising Australian profits for the Japanese brand.
Toyota Australia president Dave Buttner announced on Monday that the Australian operations lifted net profit after tax to $236 million for the 12 months ended   March 31, 2016, compared with a profit of $194 million a year earlier.
The higher profits came despite the company also reporting $81 million in restructuring costs in the 2015-16 financial year stemming from the announcement made in 2014 that the firm would stop Australian manufacturing in the final three months of calendar 2017. Toyota Australia incurred $66 million of restructuring costs in 2014-15.
 Revamped line-up 
Mr Buttner said in 2015 Toyota Australia "revamped almost 70 per cent of our vehicle line-up" which included a new HiLux model and this had been a strong contributor to increased demand from customers at the firm's 209 dealerships.
During the 2015-16 financial year, there were 209,252 vehicles sold in Australia under the Toyota brand and its stablemate, the upmarket Lexus brand. Toyota Australia exported 64,605 vehicles during the year that were built at Altona.
Mr Buttner said the workforce at Altona had stayed committed even though the closure loomed and the quality of vehicles built at Altona was at a record high.
The Toyota Australia improved profits come after rival Holden announced in   May that it had made its first annual profit since 2011 from its Australian operations, as sales of imported vehicles and one-off accounting gains offset heavy losses from its suburban Adelaide manufacturing operations. Holden made an overall net profit in calendar 2015 of $128 million.
But Holden's market share has softened to about 8 per cent of the total market. Toyota will become the top-selling automotive brand in Australia for the 14th consecutive year if its strong sales performance continues for the remainder of 2016.
Ford Australia reported a loss for 2015 of $162 million, down from $191 million a year earlier.
Ford will become the first of the three remaining Australian car makers to shut down its manufacturing operations later in 2016. Both Toyota and Holden will close their car-making plants in 2017. Mitsubishi Motors Australia also used to make cars in Australia, but it shut its manufacturing operations at Tonsley Park in Adelaide's southern suburbs in 2008.
On   June 17, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims announced that the competition regulator would launch a comprehensive market study into new car retailing after the number of complaints received by consumer law bodies hit 2000 annually, with customers increasingly annoyed at the inability of car dealers, and the corporate entities behind them, to honour consumer guarantees and fix defective vehicles.