THE South African new vehicle market continues to show resilience in the face of adversity from all angles.
49,413 new vehicles found homes last month, according to Naamsa, representing an increase of 18.2% over the same month last year.
Toyota took the top two spots on the November sales charts, with its Hilux managing 3,048 sales and the Corolla Cross 2 109. The Ford Ranger, currently in run-out phase ahead of the all-new version due in December, managed an impressive 1,979 sales.
Affordable hatchbacks continue to sell well in these tough times, and the Suzuki Swift dominated this scene in November with 1,751 sales, closely followed by the Volkswagen Polo Vivo at 1,741. The latest Polo also moved up the ranks last month, with a volume of 1,724, while the Toyota Starlet managed a respectable 1,322 sales.
On the SUV front, the Corolla Cross enjoyed a dominant lead, with its closest rival being the Toyota Urban Cruiser, at 1,334, and the Volkswagen T-Cross, at 1,046.
The Nissan Magnite was best of the rest, at 888, and the Chinese contenders enjoyed another strong month with the Haval Jolion (860) and Chery Tiggo 4 Pro (836) proving that the market is hungry for SUV products that strike a balance between practicality and price.
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If we’re talking about overall brand performance, it’s no surprise that Toyota took top honours by a huge margin with total sales of 13,903. It was followed by Volkswagen (6,406), Suzuki (4,287), Nissan (3,167) and Hyundai (3,002).
South African vehicle exports are also on the up, and the top performers in November were the Volkswagen Polo (9,790), Mercedes C-Class (8,691), Toyota Hilux (5,466), BMW X3 (4,800) and Ford Ranger (4,299).
According to Naamsa the South African new vehicle market is looking set to end the year on a high, with year-to-date sales currently running 13.6% ahead of the same period last year. This is in spite of stock shortages and the numerous financial pressures that consumers are faced with, including high fuel prices and rising interest rates.
The industry also performed better than expected month-on-month, as National Automobile Dealers’ Association (NADA) Chairperson Mark Dommisse pointed out.
“We were expecting a similar market to October, considering the negatives affecting the economy and growing political uncertainty in the country, but consumers have once again proved us wrong,” Dommisse said.
“November’s tally of 49,413 units showed an improvement of nearly 3,500 sales from just one month ago, and represented a significant 18.2% increase on the number of units sold in the same month last year. This is most heartening for all sectors of the industry.”
IOL Motoring
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