Toyota Hilux South Africa’s undisputed king of bakkies

The popularity of South Africa’s favourite vehicle, the Toyota Hilux, goes far beyond its commanding lead at the top of the new car sales charts every month.

Not only was Mzansi’s most-loved bakkie the runaway local best-seller in recording 19 818 new sales from January to June 2021, but it was also South Africa’s most-searched pre-owned car over that period.

According to AutoTrader’s mid-year Car Industry Report, there was almost 11.5-million online searches for the Toyota Hilux, which is an astounding 3.6% of the total searches of 319 over the first half of the year.

The Hilux was followed by the Volkswagen Golf, which got 9.55-million searches, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (nine million) and the BMW 3 Series (8.3-million). The Ford Ranger, the Hilux’s closest competitor in terms of monthly new sales, is fifth on the list with 7.5-million searches.

Too see the 2020 AutoTrader Car Industry Report, click here.

The Toyota Hilux also managed to dethrone the Ranger as the most enquired on model in the first half of the year. In 2020, 3.9% of the total online enquiries was on a Ford Ranger. From January to June 2021, 5.4% of all enquiries were on a Toyota Hilux.

The Ranger now finds itself in second place, ahead of the Volkswagen Polo. The only other bakkie on the top 10 list for most enquired on pre-owned cars in the Isuzu D-Max, the traditional third top-selling new bakkie every month.

The average price of all Toyota Hilux listings is R412 688, the average mileage 921 680 km and the average year model 2017. In comparison, the average model year of a pre-owned Ford Ranger listing is also 2017, the price R373 948 and the average mileage 94 919 km.

When it comes to variant-specific searches, the 3.0 D4D ranks as the most searched Toyota Hilux. AutoTrader’s report shows that this derivative was searched for 488 497 times, placing it eighth on the list for most searched variants.

This category is headed by two Volkswagen hot hatches, the Golf GTI and Polo GTI, which combined had over three million searches. The Mercedes-AMG C63 is third with 1.4 million searches, followed by another VW, the Golf R on 1.19 million.

The Ford Ranger Wildtrak is fifth with 713 071 searches, followed by the BMW 320d (605 535) and the Mercedes-Benz A45 (573 599). Yet another Volkswagen, the Polo 1.0 TSI (474 943), and the BMW M135i (469 281) completes the top 10 list for most searched variants

As far as searches for specific body styles goe, the Toyota Hilux tops both single and double cab categories, followed by the Ford Ranger in each. According to AutoTrader’s data, body-type searches contributed significantly, 51 million in fact, to all searches.

ALSO READ: Toyota Hilux vs Ford Ranger set for epic future engine war

Surprisingly, the Toyota Land Cruiser 79 Series ranks third in the single cab stakes with the Volkswagen Amarok completing the double cab podium, both edging out volume sellers like the Nissan NP200 and Isuzu D-Max respectively.

The average price for the listed single cabs from January to June was R212 299 and the average mileage 104 566 km. The average price for double cabs listing over the same period was R432 736, with the average mileage being 82 733 km.