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

According to Naamsa, South Africa’s new vehicle sales for December 2019 came in at 41 698 units, representing a rise of 4,2 percent, year on year. Here’s how sales in the passenger vehicle segment panned out…

Take note that some brands – including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Haval – continue to provide only aggregate data (and thus no individual model sales).

So, what happened in December 2019? Well, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo stayed at the top of the list, while the Polo hatchback dropped to fourth, with the facelifted Renault Kwid and Toyota Etios claiming second and third places, respectively.

The Toyota Fortuner climbed to fifth place (from tenth in November 2019), while the Corolla Quest entered the table at sixth. The Ford EcoSport, however, experienced a drop in sales, falling three spots to seventh.

The Volkswagen T-Cross fell one spot to eighth place, with the Tiguan clinching ninth and Toyota Yaris rounding out the table at tenth.

Other odds and ends

BMW registered 114 units of its 3 Series and 134 units of its locally built X3, along with 87 examples of the new 1 Series. Seven units of the Z4 roadster were sold (compared to the Toyota Supra’s four).

Ford’s Fiesta mustered just 96 units, while the Figo managed 497. The Everest (223) again outsold rivals such as the Isuzu MU-X (25) and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (24).

Honda’s most popular offering was again the Amaze sedan (130), while the new Hyundai Atos notched up a respectable 226 units. Hyundai enjoyed strong contributions from the Creta (420), Tucson (378), Grand i10 (432) and i20 (509). The newest addition to Hyundai’s crossover range, the Venue, managed 307 examples. Kia’s Seltos was the Korean firm’s top seller, with a remarkable 510 units.

The CX-5 (277) and CX-3 (275) again led the charge for Mazda (the latter remaining at a steady sales figure). Mazda’s passenger car showing saw the Mazda2 remain in the three-figure sales bracket with 180, while 85 units of the Mazda3 left showroom floors. The Datsun Go contributed 530 units to Nissan’s year-end showing.

Opel saw 90 units of its outgoing Corsa leave the showrooms. Citroën registered 25 units in total (across its three-model range), with its top seller being the C3 (12). For December, Peugeot’s 108 led the charge for the French brand with 34 units (the Toyota Aygo managed 48), while 29 examples of the 208 were sold.

Behind the Kwid, Renault’s top performers were the Duster (328) and Sandero (321). Subaru registered just 53 units in total. The Swift (443) accounted for nearly half of Suzuki’s total sales, with the Ignis (124) and Ertiga (120) also making fair contributions.

The Toyota Avanza was the Japanese automaker’s second most popular offering (522) with 496 RAV4s sold in December 2019 (up from 373). The Corolla Sedan contributed 302 units.

The Audi A3 Sportback (167) was again Audi’s volume driver, with the new Q3 accounting for 91 sales. The Golf 7 ended up on a steady 248 units, while the Polo Sedan nearly made the list with 532 units. For Volvo, the XC60 (63) was again the Swedish firm’s best seller, while XC40 sales climbed from 45 to 53 units.

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

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

1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 1 779
2. Renault Kwid – 1 631
3. Toyota Etios – 1 433
4. Volkswagen Polo hatchback – 1 410
5. Toyota Fortuner – 974
6. Toyota Corolla Quest – 963
7. Ford EcoSport – 837
8. Volkswagen T-Cross – 685
9. Volkswagen Tiguan – 630
10. Toyota Yaris – 541