Isuzu D-Max emerges as September new vehicle sales highlight

Despite posting lower figures than in August, the Toyota Hilux remained on top as South Africa’s best-selling new vehicle in September, with the marque itself being the only one to eclipse five figure numbers.

The biggest surprise was, however, reserved for third position behind the Hilux (2 842) and Volkswagen Polo Vivo (2 473), namely the Isuzu D-Max that amassed sales of 1 968 units, its highest for some time.

Losing out to the D-Max was the Toyota Urban Cruiser (1 946) with the outgoing Ford Ranger placing fifth on 1 604, the Toyota HiAce sixth with sales of 1 559 and the Toyota Corolla Cross seventh with 1 434.

In ninth, the Suzuki Swift joined the Urban Cruiser as the only other non-locally assembled vehicle within the top ten with sales of 1 332, surrounded by the Volkswagen Polo (1 371) and Nissan NP200 (1 198).

Out of the respective manufactures, Toyota’s sales tally of 12 059 saw it comfortably outranking arch-rivals Volkswagen (6 750), with Suzuki keeping station in third (4 355), Hyundai in fourth (3 146) and Nissan in fifth (2 649).

Rounding the top ten off were Renault (2 601), Isuzu (2 287), Ford (2 212) Kia (2 086) and for the first time, resurgent Chinese automaker Chery with sales of 1 352 units.

In spite of ongoing market related challenges, September not only ended another month of gains, the ninth straight increase this year, but also uptakes across the various segments.

ALSO READ: Toyota Hilux back on top as August new vehicle sales soar

While down on the percentage recorded in August, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA)’s new vehicle sales for the ninth month of 2022 showed an uptake of 10.8% from 43 147 in 2021 to 47 786 in 2022.  

Segment-wise, new passenger vehicles gained 9.7% from 29 537 to 32 392, while light commercials posted a significant improvement of 14.9% from 10 941 to 12 573.

On the medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles front, the former rose 15.3% to 882 from 765, while the latter ended the month 1.8% higher than the same time last year with sales increasing from 1 904 to 1 939.

By far the biggest highlight for the month was exports, which shot-up by a record 104.6% from last year’s 21 199 to 41 474.

“The higher stages of load-shedding seem to have an amplified negative impact on production and the South African economy as a whole,” NAAMSA said in a statement.

“However, in all this despondency there is some good news for motorists as the oil price has dropped to its lowest level since January 2022 with the petrol price to reduce further in October 2022, easing some cost pressures in a depressed economy.

“The new vehicle market’s performance for the year-to-date is still 13,4% ahead compared to the corresponding period 2021 but the pace of growth being experienced in the market is expected to slow down for the balance of the year,” the association concluded.

SEPTEMBER TOP 50 BEST-SELLERS