Features / 4 August 2025 / Michael Taylor

Best-selling car brands in South Africa

The South African car market kept up the momentum last month with an impressive sales tally.

The industry moved a total of 51,383 cars in July 2025, reflecting a 15.6% improvement from the same month last year.

As expected, Toyota is still leagues ahead of the pack with 12,694 sales – more than double that of the runner-up.

That’s not to say that other carmakers didn’t have a great month, as Suzuki sold a respectable 6,257 units.

VW wasn’t too far behind with 5,738 sales, securing the final spot in the top three.

As for the rest of the top performers, Hyundai was once again able to overtake Ford for fourth place with 3,161 purchases, whereas the Blue Oval managed 2,877 units.

GWM then landed in sixth with 2,436 sales, expanding its lead over its Chinese rival Chery, which landed in eighth with 2,160 wins.

Seventh place, meanwhile, went to Isuzu and its 2,427 showroom victories.

The second last spot in the top 10 then went to Kia with 1,891 sales.

This meant that Mahindra dropped down to 10th with 1,441 units, and BMW was knocked out of the list entirely.

On a more general note, 42,700 units (83.1%) of the cars sold in South Africa in July were the result of dealer sales.

Another 11.1% went to the rental industry, 3.1% to the government, and the remaining 2.7% were snapped up by industry fleets.

Passenger car sales ended at 36,248 units – an increase of 20.1% from July 2024.

Light commercial vehicles like bakkies, on the other hand, saw a modest improvement of 6.9% to reach 12,356 sales.

Vehicle exports declined over the same period, but only by a small margin of 1.9%.

This is actually a positive indicator for the industry, given that the US first imposed tariffs in April.

It means that exports have shown surprising resilience in the face of uncertain market conditions, though it remains to be seen whether the new 30% tariff taking effect this August will hurt the industry’s long-term prospects.