Toyota Australia has become the first car company to exceed 100,000 sales in the first five months of a calendar year.

Australians bought a record 101,816 Toyota cars and trucks between January 1 and the end of May this year.

This was almost 10.7 per cent higher than the previous record of 91,984 vehicles sold by Toyota in the same period of 2007.

No other car company has sold 75,000 vehicles in a January-May period.

Toyota has reported record sales each month this year, including 20,754 in May.

Four-cylinder Corolla remains the best-selling vehicle in Australia this year.

A further 3,668 Corolla sales in May lifted total deliveries in 2008 to 19,392 - a lead of 343 units.

HiLux backed up its industry-leading April performance by again being the most popular Toyota vehicle in May with 3,914 vehicles registered.

Yaris (1,987), Camry (1,933) and Aurion (1,618) were also among the country's top ten best-sellers in May and for the year so far.

Prado (1,435) was the top-selling SUV while Kluger, RAV and LandCruiser 200 Series were all ahead of the same month last year.

Petrol-electric Prius hybrid had its second-best month ever with 373 sales - just seven short of an all-time record.

Toyota Australia's senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner said the majority of growth was coming from multi-purpose vehicles.

"Toyota is achieving strong double-digit growth in light-commercial vehicles while our SUV sales are up almost 38 per cent this year," Mr Buttner said.

"Our strongest growth is coming from vehicles such as HiLux, which doubles as a workhorse during the week and family transport at the weekend," he said.

"Sales growth of HiLux and other light-commercial vehicles has also been helped by the arrival of extra stock, particularly of turbo-diesel models.

"In the SUV market, buyers are responding to the superior flexibility - vehicles that satisfy the demands of a keen driver while also being able to accommodate the family in comfort and style."

Mr Buttner said Toyota's market success was also largely attributable to the company's dealers who were spending $100 million a year nationally on new and improved facilities.