Triton inches forward: SA's best-selling bakkies in January 2025

The new Mitsubishi Triton has started what could be a gradual climb up the list of South Africa’s best-selling bakkies. Here are the sales figures for January 2025…

In January 2025, South Africa’s new-vehicle market grew 10.4% year on year to 46 398 units. The passenger-vehicle segment again powered this overall industry growth, while sales in the light-commercial vehicle (LCV) space dropped 9.1% year on year to 9 901 units.

So, what happened on the list of SA’s best- and worst-selling bakkies in January 2025? Well, the Toyota Hilux – which again ranked as Mzansi’s most popular vehicle in 2024 and will later this year become available in Legend 55 guise – picked up right where it left off, ending the opening month of 2025 on 2 557 units (172 of which were sales via the vehicle-rental channel).

*Toyota’s Hilux led the charge again in January.*

Though that’s 12.6% down on December’s effort, it was still more than enough to keep the Prospecton-built stalwart well ahead of the 2nd-placed Ford Ranger. The Blue Oval brand’s Silverton-made bakkie – which took the title of SA’s best-selling double-cab bakkie last year – saw its total registrations fall 3.4% month on month to 1 858 units.

In contrast, local sales of the Isuzu D-Max – which is in line to receive a facelift at some point this year – increased 30.1% compared with December’s performance, seeing the Struandale-produced model finish on 1 413 units and thus comfortably remain in 3rd position. Interestingly, 241 of those registrations represented sales to government.

Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal-assembled Mahindra Pik Up retained 4th place, enjoying its best month since June 2024, with registrations surging 105.4% month on month to 801 units (admittedly off December’s relatively low base). The Japanese-made Toyota Land Cruiser 79 (531 units) breached the 500-unit mark for the first time in recent memory, keeping its place inside the top 5 in the process.

Though sales of the Nissan Navara decreased marginally month on month to 298 units, the Rosslyn-built contender climbed a ranking to 6th, forcing the Silverton-produced Volkswagen Amarok (233 units) down a place to 7th. The GWM P-Series (101 units) only just cracked 3 figures – the Chinese bakkie is likely in a runout phase ahead of the imminent launch of the P300 – but nonetheless managed to cling to 8th.

What about the Mitsubishi Triton? Well, the Japanese bakkie – which moved into a new generation locally in November 2024 – climbed a spot to 9th, finishing January 2025 on 75 units. The Triton has now ranked inside the top 10 for 3 straight months, having entered the table with the launch of the latest generation. Finally, the GWM Steed (74 units) returned to close out the top 10.

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

Peugeot’s Landtrek dropped out of the top 10 in January.

What about the bakkies that didn’t make the top 10 in January 2025? Well, the JAC T-Series – the Chinese firm unfortunately reported only a combined figure for its T6, T8 and T9 line-ups, so we technically can’t rank these nameplates individually – managed 102 units.

Next came the Mahindra Bolero and Peugeot Landtrek (the latter slipping from the 9th place it held in December), each ending January 2025 on 53 units. With local stock dwindling, the discontinued Nissan NP200 came in on just 7 units, followed by the Jeep Gladiator on 4 units.