Johannesburg - South Africa’s new vehicle market saw a more positive trajectory develop in 2017, with albeit modest year-on-year growth of 1.8 percent, partly thanks to slowing inflation on the back of a stronger rand.
But which vehicles hit the top of the sales charts?
We tallied up the monthly sales figures supplied by Naamsa and there were no big surprises this year as the Toyota Hilux continued to dominate the bakkie market, albeit relatively closely followed by the Ford Ranger, while Volkswagen’s soon-to-be-replaced Polo and Polo Vivo were by far South Africa’s favourite passenger cars.
1. Toyota Hilux
Total sold36 422Monthly average3035Best month3995Worst month1977
2. Ford Ranger
Total sold32 811Monthly average2734Best month3333Worst month1982
3. Volkswagen Polo Vivo
Total sold28 402Monthly average2367Best month3017Worst month1230
4. Volkswagen Polo
Total sold22 916Monthly average1910Best month2734Worst month1028
5. Toyota Corolla/Quest/Auris
Total sold19 264Monthly average1605Best month2628Worst month919
6. Toyota Quantum
Total sold15 694Monthly average1308Best month1598Worst month1109
7. Nissan NP200
Total sold15 112Monthly average1259Best month1638Worst month976
8. Toyota Etios - 14 686
Total sold14 686Monthly average1224Best month2302Worst month698
9. Isuzu KB
Total sold14 256Monthly average1188Best month1499Worst month772
10. Toyota Fortuner
Total sold13 629Monthly average1136Best month1337Worst month985
Best of the rest
The Nissan NP300 Hardbody narrowly missed a top 10 position with 13 593 sales for the year, while Ford's Fiesta and EcoSport followed with 11 466 and 9921 sales respectively.
Another strong performer was Kia's new Picanto, which has sold an average of 842 units a month since its debut in July.
Renault's Kwid has also been climbing the sales charts, notching up an impressive 1120 sales in December. Renault sold a total of 8026 Kwids in 2017, averaging 669 a month.
* Note that BMW and Mercedes do not report individual sales figures and thus could not be factored in here.