News / 1 November 2023 / Michael Taylor

Best-selling car brands in South Africa

It’s been a difficult past few months for the South African motor industry, as evidenced by the latest decline in new car sales this October.

Toyota was still able to prevail as the country’s top automaker with an impressive 12,440 units sold, though this is less than the 12,704 units it reached the month prior.

VW, on the other hand, was able to improve on September’s sales with 6,595 units compared to 6,316 units, which helped it to once again claim its spot in second place.

Suzuki also had a reliable month with nearly identical sales of 4,480 units making it the other carmaker to land in the top three.

Ford and Hyundai continue to battle it out for fourth place, which last month went to the latter with 2,638 units compared to the 2,318 units of this month, flipping the results from September in the process.

Nissan was the final brand to shift enough vehicles to make it past the 2,000 mark with 2,178 units securing sixth place, and Isuzu, Renault, Kia, and Haval all managed to claim a spot in the top 10 with more than 1,300 units each.

Overall, South Africa’s automotive sector recorded 45,455 sales in October, indicating a decline of 905 units (2.0%) from the same month last year.

This is the third month of consecutive sales declines in the new vehicle market, according to Naamsa’s monthly sales reports.

Of this sum, passenger models accounted for 29,912 units while light-commercial vehicles (bakkies and minibuses) made up 12,361 purchases, with medium and heavy commercial vehicles moving 807 and 2,365 units, respectively.

Approximately 80.2% of all car sales (36,468 units) were the result of dealership sales, while 12.9% (5,880 units) went to the vehicle rental industry. Another 4.1% went to the government, and 2.8% to corporate fleets.

“Economic constraints continued to impact new vehicle sales during the month as rising cost of living and restrictive borrowing costs were depressing demand for luxury goods,” said Naamsa.

South Africa’s car market is still below its recovery expectations from the Covid-19 pandemic even three years later, and the country’s weak economic growth remains a key challenge to the new vehicle market going forward, said the business council.