February 2017’s aggregate new vehicle sales in South Africa came in at 48 113 units, virtually unchanged from the 48 144 vehicles sold in February last year. So, no massive decline, but no real growth, either.
As always, it’s interesting to take a look at what’s happening in terms of individual model sales. So, we’ve examined the figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), and picked out the ten best-selling passenger vehicles for the month (also, be sure to check out the 10 best-selling bakkies).
One must bear in mind that certain importers – such as Hyundai and Kia – do not submit individual model sales figures, instead only disclosing aggregate sales stats. Mercedes-Benz, too, has taken a similar stance. And, from February 2017, BMW SA has joined its German rival in reporting one aggregate sales number in respect of passenger car sales.
So, what happened in the second month of 2017? Well, the top four remained unchanged, which means the Volkswagen Polo Vivo and regular Polo took first and second, with Toyota’s combination of the Corolla, Auris and Corolla Quest (the brand reports an overall figure rather than individual model sales) in third and the Toyota Etios in fourth.
The Toyota Fortuner, however, climbed one place to fifth, forcing the Ford Fiesta down one to sixth. And the Renault Sandero returned to the table to grab seventh place, with the Ford Focus also making an re-appearance in eighth.
The Ford EcoSport fell one place to ninth, and the Toyota RAV4 one to tenth. The Renault Kwid (399) and Chevrolet Spark (226) thus fell out of the top ten.
Other odds and ends
Other interesting figures from February’s stats include the fact that two Abarth 124 Spider units were registered, along with nine Alfa Romeo Giulia units. The Ford Figo could manage just 271 sales, while the Kuga fell to a mere 57 units. The Everest, however, enjoyed a strong month, with 440 registrations (the Chevrolet Trailblazer, for the sake of comparison, managed 109).
Honda’s best-seller was the BR-V (206), followed by the Brio (167) and HR-V (153), while Mazda’s solid showing continued, with contributions from the CX-5 (296), CX-3 (288), Mazda2 (230) and Mazda3 (222).
Nissan’s top performer was the X-Trail with 279 units, which managed to outsell even the Datsun GO (257), while the Almera added a further 216 units to the Japanese automaker’s cause. Peugeot’s tough time in South Africa continued, with just 23 units registered in the month.
As is so often the case, the Swift (248) proved to be Suzuki’s top-seller, with the Celerio (103) next in line and the new Baleno (78) after that. Volkswagen sold a solid 489 units of the Golf, while the Tiguan (370), too, enjoyed a strong February. And some 50 units of the new Audi Q2 were also registered.
See the top ten table below (and have a look back at January’s figures here):
South Africa’s 10 best-selling passengers cars of February 2017:
1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 3 017
2. Volkswagen Polo – 2 462
3. Toyota Corolla/Auris/Quest – 1 717
4. Toyota Etios – 1 233
5. Toyota Fortuner – 1 092
6. Ford Fiesta – 1 054
7. Renault Sandero – 681
8. Ford Focus – 649
9. Ford EcoSport – 644
10. Toyota RAV4 – 612
Also read:
- 50 best-selling vehicles in the world in 2016…
- 6 most powerful naturally aspirated new cars in SA
- 5 cheapest new cars in SA with 200 kW or more
- 5 most powerful manual cars you can buy new in SA
- 5 of the most blatant copycat cars out of China
- 5 cheapest automatics on SA’s new vehicle market
- South Africa’s 5 cheapest vehicles with low-range
- 5 biggest gas-guzzlers on SA’s new vehicle market
- 5 most fuel-efficient cars we’ve recently tested
- 7 most fuel-efficient non-hybrid petrol cars in SA
- 5 most fuel-efficient non-hybrid diesel cars in SA
