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By Charl Bosch

Motoring Journalist


May top 50 best-sellers: Hilux still leads as D-Max moves up

Top five positions dominated by three bakkies with Toyota Hilux far in the lead.


South Africa’s new vehicle sales, rather expectedly, recorded its highest year-on-year increase in May with a whopping 197.8% improvement from last year’s 12 874 units to this year’s 38 337.

Largely attributed to the Coronavirus enforced lockdown of twelve months ago, the jump also expanded to exports, which rose an equally high 196.8% from a mere 11 901 units in 2020 to 35 326 in 2021.

RELATED: Expected record increase in May new vehicle sales

The status quo remained unchanged at the top of the model chart with the Toyota Hilux keeping its position, followed by its bakkie rival, the Ford Ranger, which leaped frogged the Volkswagen Polo into second place.

In a surprise fourth position, the aging Isuzu D-Max outranked the Volkswagen Polo Vivo with the Toyota HiAce placing sixth ahead of the Nissan NP200, Toyota Fortuner, Toyota Urban Cruiser and the all-new Haval Jolion. With the exception of the latter trio, all of the first eight are locally produced models.

May’s top 50 best sellers are as follows:

POS MODEL UNITS
1 Toyota Hilux 3 700
2 Ford Ranger 1 972
3 Volkswagen Polo 1 748
4 Isuzu D-Max 1 540
5 Volkswagen Polo Vivo 1 432
6 Toyota HiAce 1 346
7 Nissan NP200 914
8 Toyota Fortuner 872
9 Toyota Urban Cruiser 717
10 Haval Jolion 707
11 Suzuki S-Presso 682
12 Renault Kwid 681
13 Hyundai i20 658
14 Toyota Starlet 651
15 Toyota Corolla Quest 614
16 Volkswagen T-Cross 605
17 Renault Triber 552
18 Toyoa Agya 517
19 Ford EcoSport 507
20 Kia Picanto 493
21 Suzuki Swift 445
22 Kia Sonet 440
23 Hyundai Grand i10 439
24 Hyundai Atos 437
25 Hyundai Venue 378
26 GWM P-Series 365
27 Volkswagen Polo Sedan 352
28 Volkswagen T-Roc 326
29 Haval H2 325
30 Mahindra Pik-up 318
31 Mazda CX-5 298
32 Hyundai Creta 292
33 Mazda CX-3 277
34 Toyota Avanza 268
35 Hyundai H100 261
36 Suzuki Vitara Brezza 255
37 Toyota RAV4 255
38 Ford Everest 252
39 Suzuki Jimny 239
40 Kia Seltos 224
41 GWM Steed 220
42 Nissan Almera 219
43 Hyundai Tucson 213
44 Nissan NP300 Hardbody 206
45 Volkswagen T6.1 181
46 Toyota Land Cruiser 76/79 178
47 Renault Duster 164
48 Nissan X-Trail 158
49 Land Rover Defender 154
50 Datsun Go/G0+ 150

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