Best-selling car brands in South Africa

Toyota has once again taken top billing in the latest monthly sales report, as the Japanese carmaker moved a total of 9,743 units in June.

This is an improvement of 948 models from May, no doubt helped by the launch of the hotly anticipated next-gen Prado and new Hilux variants.

VW, meanwhile, managed to secure a comfortable lead over its new sales rival Suzuki with a total of 5,514 units sold, scoring it second place overall.

Suzuki still managed a respectable 4,297 showroom victories, which easily landed it in the final podium position.

In fourth place is Ford with 2,404 transactions, reflecting a drop of 456 units from the month prior, though this was still enough to put it ahead of Hyundai with its 2,367 sales.

Not far behind is Isuzu, which was the last automaker to find more than 2,000 customers in June a a total of 2,157.

Nissan moved up a spot to seventh with 1,905 units, and Chery is still ahead of its Chinese rival GWM with 1,653 compared to 1,307 sales.

A surprise entry on the list this time around is BMW, which managed to surpass Renault to take 10th place with 1,104 high-end buyers.

Aggregate domestic new-vehicle sales during June reached 46,603 units, reflecting a decrease of 14% (6,531 units) from the same month in 2023.

Export sales were more positive, as they went up by 3.6% (977 units) to reach a total of 28,306 vehicles compared to 27,329 in June 2023.

Of all the cars sold in South Africa, 82.5% (33,039 units) were thanks to dealership transactions while 11% went to the rental industry.

Another 3.6% were purchased by government, and industry corporate fleets accounted for the remaining 2.9%.

Light commercial vehicle registrations, which include bakkies and minibuses, dropped from 13,937 to 10,552 units – a considerable reduction of 24.3%.

It was a similar story for passenger cars, which declined 9% year-on-year to settle at 29,599 models.

Naamsa attributes the continued contracts in vehicle sales to households grappling with consistent cost pressures in a weak economic environment.

However, it notes that the market has responded positively to the election and the new government cabinet, and the continued absence of load-shedding, improving petrol prices, and lowering interest rates is expected to result in a better economic outlook towards the second half of the year.