News / 9 January 2024 / Michael Taylor

Best-selling car brands in South Africa

The last month of 2023 was another disheartening showcase for South Africa’s automotive industry, which reported its fifth consecutive month of declining sales.

A total of 40,329 units were registered in December 2023, marking a 3.3% reduction compared to the 41,721 units sold in the same month the year prior, according to Naamsa.

Toyota is still standing as the brand of choice for most South Africans with 11,200 vehicles purchased in the last 31 days of 2023, though this is lower than in November, which was itself a decline from the month before.

The same can be said of VW, which reported a still-strong running of 5,274 units despite the decline in sales from previous months. Likewise, Suzuki is comfortably sitting in third place even though its 3,355 units for December is notably lower than the 4,368 units from November.

Hyundai, on the other hand, saw a comeback with 2,569 units, which managed to help it secure fourth place again after dropping two ranks to Ford and Nissan, who themselves are now in fifth and sixth place with 2,489 units and 1,900 units sold, respectively.

Other carmakers to make it into the top 10 include Renault, Haval, Isuzu, and Kia, all of whom managed to find more than 1,400 new customers over the festive season.

Of all the vehicles sold, 88% (40,329 units) came from dealership sales, while another 8.7% were attributed to vehicle rental fleets, 2.2% to the government, and 1.1% to corporate holdings.

Both passenger and light-commercial models reported a drop in performance, with the former seeing a 3.9% decline compared to the year before, while the latter sank by 2.9%.

Exports, meanwhile, paint a more positive story with a 1.2% gain to reach 26,612 units moved in December, thus ending the year with a record-high 396,290 cars sent overseas.

Naamsa attributed the reduced car sales to a depressed South African economy with elevated living costs, combined with the major disruptions to the country’s ports towards the end of the year.