SA’s 10 best-selling passenger cars of April 2019

By: CAR magazine

According to Naamsa, April 2019’s new vehicle industry sales came in at 36 794 units, representing an increase of 0,7 percent, year on year. Here’s what happened in the fourth month of the year in the passenger vehicle segment…

As always, it’s interesting to take a look at what’s going on in terms of individual model sales. We’ve already examined the figures and picked out the 10 best-selling bakkies for the month, and now it’s time to do the same with the passenger vehicle market (also, check out the worst-selling passenger cars, too).

Take note that while BMW has started reporting individual model sales figures again, some brands such as German rival Mercedes-Benz continue to provide only aggregate data (Porsche, too, recently followed suit).

So, what happened in April 2019? Well, Volkswagen Polo Vivo remained in top spot, with the Polo hatch again in second place (for the record, the local arm of the German firm also sold 235 examples of its Polo Sedan). These, however, were the only two models to make it into four figures.

Toyota’s RAV4, meanwhile, rocketed seven places up the table to grab third place, just ahead of the Toyota Fortuner in fourth (itself climbing two places). The Ford EcoSport moved up two spots to fifth, while the Toyota Etios climbed the same number of places to sixth.

The Hyundai Grand i10 dropped two to seventh, with the Renault Kwid plummeting five to eighth. The Datsun Go returned to the table to grab ninth, while the outgoing Renault Clio also made a reappearance to snaffle the final spot on the list.

Other bits and bobs

So, what else interesting happened in April? Well, the new 3 Series (354) led the way for BMW, with the locally built X3 next on 170 units. Just eight examples of the new 8 Series were registered, along with 12 units of the box-fresh Z4. Twelve units of the all-electric BMW i3 were registered in April, along with five examples of the Jaguar I-Pace.

Ford’s Figo (426) came close to placing in the top ten, with the recently updated Everest adding 345 units for the Blue Oval brand. Sales of the Fiesta, however, fell to 193 units. The BR-V (100) was the only Honda to hit three figures, while the Tucson (372), i20 (346) and Creta (235) made useful contributions to Hyundai’s cause.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles SA managed 127 units in total, with Mitsubishi registering 133 and Mahindra some 184. Opel totalled 243 units (101 of which wore the Corsa badge), while Subaru fell to 87 units and Peugeot to a mere 69. Haval, however, grew to an impressive 651 registrations.

The CX-5 (338) and CX-3 (321) again led the charge for Mazda, with the X-Trail (244) and Qashqai (229) playing similar roles for Nissan. Renault’s Sandero (422) wasn’t far from placing in the top ten, while the Duster added a useful 322 units for the French firm. The Koleos, though, could muster just 26 sales.

Suzuki’s most popular model was (rather predictably) the Swift with 383 units, although the new Ertiga added a handy 113 units and the Ignis a further 147. In the Toyota stable, the new Corolla hatchback ended up on 141 units (five more than the Corolla sedan), with the Corolla Quest (436) just outside the top ten.

For Volkswagen, the Tiguan (442) performed admirably, again outselling the outgoing Golf (391). The XC60 (80) was easily Volvo’s best seller, while the Picanto (402), Rio (266) and Sportage (183) did the bulk of the work for Kia.

See the top ten table below (and have a look back at March 2019’s figures here):

South Africa’s 10 best-selling passenger cars of April 2019:

1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 2 350
2. Volkswagen Polo – 1 165
3. Toyota RAV4 – 839
4. Toyota Fortuner – 816
5. Ford EcoSport – 742
6. Toyota Etios – 719
7. Hyundai Grand i10 – 718
8. Renault Kwid – 472
9. Datsun Go – 453
10. Renault Clio – 452

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