3 passenger cars that leapfrogged VW's Polo in SA in 2022

Traditionally right at the sharp end of South Africa’s passenger-vehicle sales charts, the Volkswagen Polo hatch fell to 5th in 2022. These are the 4 vehicles (3 of which leapfrogged the German supermini) that finished ahead of it…

In 2021, the Volkswagen Polo hatchback was South Africa’s 2nd best-selling passenger vehicle, bettered only by the Polo Vivo produced in the same Kariega factory. The German supermini was runner-up behind its sibling in the 2 prior years as well, and even claimed the top spot back in 2018.

In 2022, however, the Polo hatch failed to make the podium. In fact, now we’ve tallied up the sales, we see the 6th-generation hatchback was forced down to an unfamiliar 5th place on the list of SA’s top-selling passenger vehicles (and 8th overall, including light-commercial vehicles). We won’t go into the multitude of potential reasons behind the Polo’s apparent fall from grace in 2022 – we’ve covered those extensively in our earlier feature detailing the model’s slide down the sales charts – so we’ll instead focus on the raw numbers here.

Though the Polo hatchback’s final effort of 15 697 units is certainly not a figure to be sniffed at (translating to a monthly average of 1 308 units), it represents a near-14% fall when compared to 2021’s tally of 18 235 units. Tellingly, this decline came in a total new-vehicle market that grew 13.9% year on year, from 464 122 to 528 963 units, allowing other passenger vehicles to leapfrog the Polo.

So, which passenger vehicles outsold the Polo hatch in 2022? Let’s take a closer look at the stats…

Volkswagen Polo Vivo still reigns supreme in SA

*VW’s Polo Vivo was 2022’s best-selling passenger car, beaten in the overall standings only by Toyota’s Hilux.*

It’s certainly not all bad news for VW, of course, as the Polo Vivo quite comfortably retained its title in 2022, a year that kicked off with the 100 000th example of the current-generation model rolling off the production line in the Eastern Cape. Still, with 20 866 units registered over the past 12 months, the prolonged-lifecycle model’s total fell 5%, year on year.

Though its monthly average came in at 1 739 units, the Vivo’s strongest single showing was in September 2022, when as many as 2 473 examples were registered. Its weakest effort, meanwhile, came in May 2022, with a still-convincing 1 179 units sold around the country. This latest yearly performance means the Vivo has been SA’s top-selling passenger car for 4 cycles on the trot.

Indian-built Suzuki Swift rockets up to 2nd place

*Year-on-year sales of Suzuki’s Swift grew a mammoth 108% in 2022.*

Suzuki Auto SA enjoyed a fantastic 2022, regularly breaking monthly sales records and making 3rd place on the list of the country’s best-selling automakers (behind Toyota and the VW Group) very much its own. The Swift – which is imported from the Japanese firm’s Maruti division in India – played a pivotal role in that success.

With 17 282 units registered in 2022, the Swift grabbed the title of SA’s 2nd best-selling passenger car from the Polo, rocketing up the table from 6th place in 2021. In fact, local sales of the budget hatchback more than doubled (from 8 332 units) last year, with the official year-on-year increase sitting at a whopping 108%. At least some of the Swift’s success can be attributed to its growing popularity with rental-fleet buyers in 2022 (for example, in its best month of June, as many as 675 of the 1 925 units sold came via that channel).

Toyota’s (Suzuki-built) Urban Cruiser slots into 3rd spot

*Despite nearing the end of the road, Toyota’s Urban Cruiser was the top-selling crossover in 2022.*

The Toyota Urban Cruiser narrowly missed out on 2nd spot, ending 2022 a mere 290 units behind the Swift. The small crossover – which is based on the Vitara Brezza and likewise produced by Maruti Suzuki in India – soared to 16 992 units, which was more than enough for it to secure the title of SA’s best-selling SUV (grabbing the crown from the mighty Fortuner).

In 2021, the Urban Cruiser was the 5th strongest-selling passenger vehicle in the country with 8 887 registrations, though it launched locally only in March of that year. Of course, news of this model’s impending axing emerged in November 2022, so we expect it to quietly exit the market within the first few months of 2023. What will replace it? Well, our intel suggests Toyota SA Motors will launch the larger Urban Cruiser Hyryder as its successor (and perhaps also find space for the rumoured new Taisor).

Toyota Corolla Cross grabs 4th … but what might have been?

*Were it not for the KZN floods, Toyota’s Corolla Cross would surely have been in contention for top honours.*

Though Toyota’s Corolla Cross didn’t quite manage to crack the podium in 2022, its effort of 15 855 units was a remarkable one. Why? Well, production of this model – as well as that of the Hilux, Fortuner, Corolla Quest and Hi-Ace Ses’fikile – ground to an abrupt halt at the Prospecton facility in mid-April (right after a bumper month of 2 384 sales in March) owing to damage caused by the devastating KwaZulu-Natal floods.

The on-the-spot shuttering of the factory outside Durban ultimately resulted in 3 consecutive months (May, June and July) of Corolla Cross sales dipping below the 200-unit mark. Had the floods never happened, the shrewdly positioned crossover would surely have finished ahead of the Urban Cruiser and Swift, and perhaps even given the Polo Vivo a run for its money…