SA's best-selling cars and crossovers in April 2024

It was a tight race at the top in April 2024! We’ve sorted through the sales figures and identified South Africa’s best-selling cars and crossovers for last month…

We’ve already identified the country’s most popular bakkies for April 2024, but what about South Africa’s best-selling cars and crossovers? Well, we’ve managed to lay our hands on the (unaudited) figures submitted to Naamsa, allowing us to list the top-selling passengers vehicles for the month.

For the record, South Africa’s new-vehicle market ended its 8-month streak of year-on-year declines in April 2024, with total sales climbing 2.2% (compared with April 2023) to 38 172 units. Mzansi’s new passenger-vehicle market outpaced the broader market in terms of year-on-year growth, increasing 6.1% to 25 972 units.

Digging into the data, we find that the Volkswagen Polo Vivo was SA’s most popular passenger car in April, with 1 766 units of the Kariega-built prolonged-lifecycle hatchback registered around the country. Interestingly, despite the fact a new generation Suzuki Swift is seemingly around the corner, the Indian-made hatchback was just 41 registrations behind on 1 725 units. As a reminder, Suzuki grabbed 2nd place overall last month, ousting the VW Group for the very first time.

The Prospecton-produced Toyota Corolla Cross (1 573 units) completed the passenger-vehicle podium in April, while also finishing as the highest-placed crossover. The Toyota Starlet – which is built by Suzuki in India – took 4th position with 1 148 units, while the Chinese-made Chery Tiggo 4 Pro (976 units) fell just short of 4 figures, though grabbed a strong 5th place.

*The Tiggo 4 Pro cracked the top 5, helping Chery to a 6th-place finish overall.*

Next came the Nissan Magnite (849 units) in 6th, with this Indian-manufactured accounting for a whopping 58.8% of its maker’s total in April; remember, the NP200 – which has long been responsible for a hefty chunk of the Japanese brand’s volume – has since been retired.

The Hyundai Grand i10 took 7th place with 825 units, a figure that would rise by a further 51 units were we to include light-commercial vehicle sales (in the form of the Cargo-badged panel-van derivative). The Kariega-produced Volkswagen Polo hatch (822 units) thus had to settle for 8th place, ahead of the Suzuki Baleno (659 units) in 9th. Finally, the Chinese-made Haval Jolion closed out the top 10 with 620 registrations in April.