Chery Tiggo 4 pips Haval Jolion as SA’s most popular Chinese car

The Chery Tiggo 4 Pro was South Africa’s favourite Chinese car in August, but the GWM Haval Jolion has managed to narrow the gap to the top.

Chery Tiggo 4 Pro loses ground

According the naamsa figures for new car sales in August released by the Automotive Business Council, Chery managed to sell a total of 1 072 Tiggo 4 Pros last month, the fourth consecutive month the Chinese carmaker has managed to reach the four-digit mark.

GWM has straightaway reaped rewards from splitting the Haval Jolion range into City and Pro derivatives with sales of 953 in August.

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro was the third most popular Chinese car with sales of 335, followed by the Haval H6 (292), Omoda C5 (290), Chery Tiggo 8 Pro (209), GWM P-Series (205), Jaecoo J7 (178), JAC T-Series (107) and BAIC Bejing X55 (98).

Toyota comfortably ahead

After recovering to a total of 44 229 units in July, the new vehicle market declined 4.9% in August to 43 588. The top five best-selling manufacturers from July remained the same, with Toyota (10 656) topping the charts ahead of VW (5 645), Suzuki (5 131), Ford (2 960) and Hyundai (2 721).

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Toyota’s dominance came off the back if the Hilux, which was again the most popular new vehicle in August with sales of 2 527. The Ford Ranger (2 312) was the second best-selling model, with the VW Polo Vivo (1 937) slotting in at third.

The Isuzu D-Max was South Africa’s fourth best-selling vehicle and fourth best-selling bakkie with sales of 1 634, while the Toyota Corolla Cross (1 630) came in at number five.

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Local is lekker

It is not surprising that the top five models are all built locally. The Hyundai Grand i10 (1 328) becomes the first imported car at number six. The Suzuki Swift (1 190) and Toyota Starlet Cross (1 181), slotting is at seven and eighth respectively, are both built in India like the Grand i10.

A locally-built car, the VW Polo (1 149), is in ninth place. Rounding off the top 10 is the Chinese import Chery Tiggo 4 Pro.