Polo Vivo hits 12-month high! SA's passenger-car sales in October 2025

In October 2025, the VW Polo Vivo registered its best sales in 12 months, while the Haval Jolion climbed to 6th. Here are South Africa’s best-selling passenger vehicles…

SA-built Polo Vivo’s best effort since November 2024
Haval Jolion improves 16.7% to climb to 6th position
Kia Sonet returns to the top 10 with 19.4% increase

In October 2025, South Africa’s new-vehicle market surged to a 10-year high, with local sales growing 16.0% year on year to 55 956 units. This overall performance was mirrored in the local new passenger-vehicle market, which gained 14.8% year on year to reach 39 610 units – its highest monthly tally since October 2014.

For the record, the new-vehicle rental channel accounted for a considerable 21.7% – or 8 605 units – of that passenger-car total, which industry representative body Naamsa attributed to the approach of South Africa’s “peak travel season”.

So, what happened on the list of South Africa’s best-selling passenger vehicles in October 2025? Well, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo retained 1st position, with local sales increasing 8.4% month on month to 2 678 units (including 770 units via the rental channel). According to our records, that’s the Kariega-built hatchback’s best performance since November 2024.

The Suzuki Swift was again the highest-ranked imported model, retaining 2nd position by growing its sales 4.9% month on month to 2 377 units (the nameplate’s 2nd-best effort of the year, after January 2025‘s performance). A whopping 1 140 units – or some 48.0% of the Indian-built hatchback’s total – came courtesy of rental-fleet buyers, helping drive the Suzuki brand to a record total of 6 890 units.

The final place on the passenger-vehicle podium went to the Chery Tiggo 4, though it’s worth keeping in mind the Chinese firm again opted to include Tiggo Cross sales in the Tiggo 4 Pro figure (something it first did in June and again in July 2025, before curiously reverting to separate totals in August and September … and now switching back again). In the end, Chery reported 1 725 sales – all via the dealer channel – of what it now terms the “Tiggo 4 Cross” range.

As such, the Toyota Corolla Cross was pushed down to 4th position, with local registrations of the Prospecton-built crossover slipping 17.1% month on month to 1 615 units (including 294 sales to via the rental channel). The Toyota Starlet, too, dropped a spot to 5th, with sales dipping 1.0% (compared to September 2025) to 1 613 units, including 612 examples sold to rental-fleet companies.

*October 2025 proved to be the Jolion’s best month yet.*

Meanwhile, the Haval Jolion enjoyed a 16.7% month-on-month improvement in sales to finish October 2025 on 1 418 units (including 196 sales to rental buyers), seeing the Chinese-made crossover jump 2 rankings to 6th. According to our records, that’s the Jolion’s best single-month total yet. The Suzuki Fronx (1 369 units; up 29.9% month on month) climbed 3 places to 7th, registering the strongest growth in the top 10 to also hit its highest ever total.

The Toyota Urban Cruiser (1 360 units; up 14.2% month on month) moved up a spot to 8th, with 44.0% of its volume coming through the rental channel. After reaching an all-time high in September, the Hyundai Grand i10 slipped 4 places to 9th in October, with local sales falling 10.7% to 1 296 units. That figure includes 121 rental sales but excludes 40 registrations of the Cargo-badged panel-van in the light-commercial vehicle (LCV) space.

Kia Sonet LS — *Kia’s Sonet returned to the top 10 in October.*

Finally, the Kia Sonet made a return to the table in October 2025, growing its sales 19.4% month on month to 1 221 units and grabbing 10th place in the process. As many as 410 units were sold to rental buyers, which translates to 33.6% of this Indian-built crossover’s tally.

So, which models just missed out on a top-10 finish in October? Well, after placing 6th in September with a new sales record, the Toyota Vitz dropped out of the top 10 in October, with local registrations dipping 17.0% to 1 200 units. Next came the Toyota Starlet Cross (1 011 units), followed by the Omoda C5 (849 units), Volkswagen Polo hatch (813 units) and Nissan Magnite (809 units, excluding 77 sales in the LCV space).