Pádraig Collins writes from Sydney on what's moving in the Australian market
The past 30 years has seen the average Australian household size fall from 3.3 people to 2.6. The same period has seen the proportion of unmarried 20-somethings jump from 35.7 per cent to 75.6 per cent. So, the traditionally large Australian car is not as necessary as it once was.
From the 1950s until relatively recently the "family sedan" was the mainstay of the Australian car market. It had five seats and six cylinders. It was almost always a Holden (Kingswood, then Commodore) or Ford Falcon.
"We no longer automatically qualify in our 20s for the family sedan," says Kim Rennick, a car industry consultant. "Instead, we can choose something which speaks to our sense of individuality and style."
If Irish people were famously either Lyons' or Barry's tea drinkers, an Australian was either a "Ford man" or a "Holden man" - women didn't buy a lot of cars back then.
The Commodore and Falcon are still the most popular cars in the country, but their combined sales fell from 160,000 in 1996 to 139,000 last year, with Ford sustaining the most damage. In that period, small cars increased their market share from 135,000 to 162,000, and European imports doubled to around 50,000.
The biggest change in the past six years, though, has been the huge increase in four-wheel-drives from 50,000 to 116,000. Figures for the first half of this year show that Commodore and Falcon were outsold by 4WDs for the first time.
One of the main reasons for the huge growth in 4WD sales is their favourable tariff rate compared to other imported cars - there are no locally produced 4WDs. A reduced tariff rate of 5 per cent has been applied to 4WDs since the 1970s, when farmers and miners were the only people using them. Passenger cars, on the other hand, are subject to a 15 per cent rate, though this is to fall to 10 per cent in 2005.
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating recently entered the 4WD debate, saying the vehicles were a "pox" on cities. Keating told an Australia Road Federation conference that the vehicles were not built for city use: "The advent of the large four-wheel-drives for urban transport has become a pox of significant proportions," he said, adding that they were more dangerous and used up more fuel than standard cars.
"If I had my way, I'd tax them off the roads and feel very good about doing it," he said.
While 4WDs may rarely be used for their original purpose, road trains are still doing what they always have done - linking cities and towns over vast stretches of nothingness.
Road trains are the massive articulated trucks which travel highways such as the Nullarbor Plain. If you head west from Adelaide, it's 300 miles to the next town, and more than 1,000 miles to the next city, Perth .
At 330 miles the Nullarbor - literally meaning "no tree" - is the world's longest straight road. Truck accidents happen because drivers just steer off the road having lost their sense of direction. They call it "white line fever".
One of the main causes of accidents for ordinary cars on the Nullarbor is hitting kangaroos. Crashing into a "big red" at highway speed will pretty much destroy a car.
In two states, South Australia and Western Australia, there is a speed limit. A lot of highway in the Northern Territories has no limit, the only requirement being that you travel at a safe speed for the prevailing conditions.
The Stuart Highway is the only overland link between Darwin and the south of the country, and nearly all supplies for "the Top End" are trucked up the highway via Alice Springs, 1,000 miles south.
Drive it and you will see road trains and backpackers driving the type of old bangers you never see in Ireland any more. But mostly you will see nothing but the empty bitumen before and behind you.
You are advised not to go too fast at night. That's when the wildlife come out to play. Hit a bug at a high enough speed and it can crack your windscreen.
But, if you have the right 4WD on the Stuart Highway, its engine will come equipped with not only cooking facilities, but also a shower - extras not often required for city driving.
The Aussie macho stereotype is slowly disappearing with the evolution of society but one place he is still alive and well is in car showrooms.