Navara back in top 5! SA's best-selling bakkies in May 2025

Despite Nissan’s global troubles, the Rosslyn-built Navara broke back into the top 5 on the list of South Africa’s best-selling bakkies for May 2025…

In May 2025, South Africa’s total new-vehicle market grew 22% year on year to 45 308 units. The new light-commercial vehicle (LCV) segment, meanwhile, registered its 2nd straight month of year-on-year growth, improving 5.8% to 10 938 units.

What happened on the list of Mzansi’s best- and worst-selling bakkies in May 2025? Well, despite sales of the Toyota Hilux slipping 8.3% month on month to 2 548 units – its lowest tally of the year thus far – the Prospecton-made stalwart retained 1st place.

*Toyota’s Hilux was again SA’s top-selling bakkie in May 2025.*

Meanwhile, the Ford Ranger registered a 24.2% improvement over April’s effort, ending May 2025 on 2 147 units and keeping 2nd place. As such, the Silverton-produced contender was just 401 units off the pace last month. The Struandale-built Isuzu D-Max (1 473 units) again ranked 3rd, with its sales growing 32.9% month on month (off a relatively low base in April).

Local registrations of the Mahindra Pik Up increased 20.2% month on month to 786 units, seeing the Indian brand’s KwaZulu-Natal-assembled bakkie hold steady in 4th spot. The Nissan Navara (389 units) enjoyed a 32.8% month-on-month improvement in sales to climb 2 rankings to 5th, despite the Japanese company’s global struggles (including reports that the Rosslyn factory is facing the axe). That’s only the 2nd time this year the Navara has made the top half of the table.

After elbowing its way into the top 5 in April, the Chinese-made GWM P-Series (348 units; -30%) slipped a place to 6th in May 2025, a spot it shared with the Japanese-built Toyota Land Cruiser 79 (348 units; -16.5%). The Volkswagen Amarok (282 units; +11%) and Foton Tunland G7 (216 units; +1.9%) retained 8th and 9th place, respectively.

Finally, the JAC T-Series completed the table, with its combined tally of 162 units representing a 0.6% increase over April’s effort. For the record, we previously didn’t rank the T-Series since Chinese firm JAC reports only a combined figure for its T6, T8 and T9 line-ups to Naamsa.

JAC T9 — *The JAC T-Series (T9 pictured here) ranked 10th in May 2025.*

However, since GWM’s P-Series total technically also includes various models (the standard P-Series/facelifted P300 and the larger P500), we’ve opted to adjust our methodology. Still, in a bid for further clarity, we’ve managed to obtain an unofficial breakdown of T-Series sales for May 2025. According to our source, JAC registered 102 examples of the T9 last month, along with 54 units of the T8 and 6 units of the T6.

Best of the rest in May 2025: bakkies outside top 10

*Mahindra’s seemingly evergreen Bolero attracted 95 sales last month.*

So, which bakkies didn’t rank in the top 10 in May 2025? Well, the GWM Steed was the best of the rest with 118 sales, followed by the Mahindra Bolero (95 units). Meanwhile, the Chinese-built Peugeot Landtrek (66 units) fell out of the top 10 last month.

Though it registered an improvement over April’s performance, the Mitsubishi Triton still found itself just a single rung from the bottom of the ladder, with 48 units sold. Finally, the Jeep Gladiator – which is tipped to soon enjoy a facelift locally – saw 9 sales in South Africa last month.