VW Polo back in top 3! SA's best-selling passenger vehicles

The Volkswagen Polo hatch registered its best sales performance of the year thus far to break back into the top 3 of SA’s best-selling passenger vehicles in October 2024…

In October 2024, South Africa’s new-vehicle market improved 5.5% year on year to 47 942 units, with passenger vehicles clearly driving that growth. In fact, the latter segment grew 14.5% year on year to 34 228 units last month, representing the market’s highest passenger-vehicle tally since October 2019.

It’s worth keeping in mind that in October this segment was greatly aided by sales to the rental industry, which comprised a considerable 19.8% of that total. But which models were the most popular overall? Let’s take a closer look at SA’s best-selling passenger vehicles for October 2024.

*Toyota’s locally built Corolla Cross put in its best sales performance of the year.*

The Volkswagen Polo Vivo (2 297 units) remained in pole position, though the likewise locally built Toyota Corolla Cross (2 104 units) narrowed the gap by putting in its best sales month of 2024 thus far. For the record, the Vivo’s tally included 586 sales to the rental industry, with the Corolla Cross benefitting from 397 sales via this channel.

Meanwhile, the Kariega-built Volkswagen Polo hatch cracked 4 figures for only the 4th time this year, registering easily its strongest performance of 2024 with 1 425 units sold. Though the hatchback relied heavily on the rental industry (535 units or 37.5% of its total), this showing saw it climb 3 places to return to the podium.

*Toyota’s Starlet bounced back into the top 10 as the most popular imported model.*

The most popular imported car of October 2024 was the Indian-built Toyota Starlet (1 358 units, including 532 rental sales), which returned to the top 10 to grab 4th. The Hyundai Grand i10 (1 280 units) wasn’t far behind, falling a place to 5th. For the record, since we’re examining the passenger-car segment here, that figure excludes light-commercial vehicle sales of the Cargo-badged panel van, which registered a further 68 sales.

With the latest-generation model now seemingly fully online, the Suzuki Swift (1 179 units) returned to the top 10 to snaffle a strong 6th position, finishing just ahead of the Suzuki Fronx (1 109 units). As many as 407 units of the Swift’s total came courtesy of the rental space, with the Fronx moving 216 units through that channel.

*Suzuki’s Fronx crossed the 1 000-unit mark for the first time.*

As an aside, this is the first time the Fronx has broken the 1 000-unit barrier since launching in Mzansi, with this 7th-place passenger-vehicle finish also its highest placing yet. Interestingly, the closely related Toyota Starlet Cross ended the month on 805 units, seeing it rank 14th.

Despite growing its sales volume month on month, the Chery Tiggo 4 Pro (1 079 units) thus slipped 3 rankings to 8th, while the Renault Kwid (934 units, of which 461 were rental sales) returned to the top 10 in 9th, recording its strongest effort of the year so far. After ranking 3rd in September, the Prospecton-produced Toyota Fortuner (905 units) plummeted 7 spots to 10th in October.

*Renault’s Kwid returned to the top 10 in October.*

For the record, the 3 models that made the top 10 in September but fell away in October were the Haval Jolion (886 units), Nissan Magnite (854 units) and Toyota Vitz (676 units).