South Africa’s new-vehicle market crowned a fresh best-selling vehicle overall in January 2025, with this hatchback beating both Toyota’s Hilux and VW’s Polo Vivo…
In January 2025, Suzuki Auto SA leapfrogged Volkswagen Group Africa for only the 2nd time in history, grabbing the runner-up place behind Toyota. And, in the process, South Africa crowned a new best-selling vehicle for the month.
Yes, the Suzuki Swift finished January 2025 – the local market’s 4th straight month of year-on-year growth – on a hefty 2 628 units, seeing it beat perennial front runners and locally manufactured favourites, the Toyota Hilux (2 557 units) and the Volkswagen Polo Vivo (2 549 units).
According to our records, that’s easily the Swift nameplate’s best effort ever in South Africa and indeed the first time this imported hatchback has breached the 2 000-unit mark in a single month. It beats the model’s 1 925-unit haul of June 2022, when it also briefly wore the crown of SA’s top-selling vehicle (in the absence of the Hilux, which tumbled down the sales charts thanks to the KwaZulu-Natal flooding that shuttered the Prospecton plant).
With a considerable 19.2% of January’s sales in the new-passenger vehicle segment coming courtesy of the vehicle-rental channel, it’s perhaps no surprise the Swift enjoyed exceedingly strong support from this part of the market. In the end, as many as 1 219 examples of the hatchback were registered as sales to the rental industry, translating to a whopping 46.4% of the Swift’s record total.
As a reminder, the new-generation Swift hatchback hit the local market in the final quarter of 2024. The range comprises 5 derivatives, all powered by Suzuki’s latest naturally aspirated 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine (Z12E), which drives the front wheels via either a 5-speed manual gearbox or a continuously variable transmission (CVT).
Pricing currently runs from R219 900 to R284 900, excluding the Swift Sport (which is based on the previous-gen model and is imported from Japan). The Swift – the mainstream derivatives of which are sourced from Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar facility in India – finished 3rd on the list of South Africa’s best-selling passenger vehicles in 2024, placing behind the Polo Vivo and Toyota Corolla Cross.
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