Best-selling car brands in South Africa

August was a mixed month for vehicle sales in South Africa, as certain brands improved on their numbers from the month prior while others saw a small decrease.

Toyota is still leading the pack with 10,656 units, though this is a dip of 475 models compared to July.

VW had a similar decline of 533 units, though this was not enough to take away the German brand’s second-place position with 5,645 purchases.

Suzuki, on the other hand, actually saw an uptick in sales, putting it within reach of Volkswagen’s title with 5,131 new customers.

Ford and Hyundai are still comfortably sitting in fourth and fifth place as well, as the two automakers managed to rack up 2,960 and 2,721 sales, respectively.

Isuzu fell just shy of the 2,000 mark with 1,961 buyers landing it in sixth, and Chery managed to move up to seventh thanks to 1,626 showroom victories – just five more than Nissan.

Nissan therefore dropped down to eighth with 1,621 units finding new owners, and the final two entries consisted of GWM and Renault with 1,608 sales for the former and 1,367 for the latter.

Unfortunately, the industry as a whole could not sustain the positive trend set in July, as aggregate sales came to 43,588 units, reflecting a 4.9% loss (2,266 units) compared to the same month last year.

Approximately 81.5% of new purchases were attributed to dealerships, while another 12.4% went to the vehicle rental industry.

The government took ownership of 3.3%, and the remaining 2.8% was taken by industry corporate fleets.

Of the vehicles sold, passenger cars accounted for 30,022 units, which is a 3.1% improvement over the figures achieved in August 2023.

Things were less positive for light commercial vehicles like bakkies and minibuses which sold 10,709 units, a dramatic loss of 21.5% from last year.

Exports were also down substantially with only 28,073 examples being shipped overseas – a year-on-year reduction of 34.3% (14,658 units).

Naamsa attributed the growth in passenger car sales to a better economic outlook in South Africa with an improved exchange rate, decreasing fuel prices, lower consumer inflation, and the absence of load-shedding.

Conversely, the poor export numbers are likely due to stifled economic activity in Europe, which is South Africa’s largest foreign market.