Which vehicles did South Africans buy most in 2015? With the help of Lightstone Auto we can now reveal the top 20.
Monthly sales figures released by NAAMSA are certainly interesting, but they don’t accurately reflect the number of new vehicles sold to private buyers and fleets. The NAAMSA numbers usually include rentals, as well as cross-border sales to Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, and only drill as deep as model ranges.
What follows here are the top 20 best-selling model derivatives of 2015, excluding rental sales and exports to the countries listed above. The data was supplied by Lightstone Auto.
Volkswagen Polo tops the charts
With more than 10 000 sales in a single year, the Polo 1.2 TSI Comfortline (66kW) is comfortably the most popular vehicle on sale in South Africa at present. The top-selling sedan on the local market, and one that is clearly favoured by the likes of Uber operators, is the Toyota Corolla Quest 1,6, which sits at fifth overall.
The top selling double-cab on the market is the Ford Ranger 2.2 HP XL (8 381 sales), which is significantly more than the second-placed double-cab, the Toyota Hilux Legend45 3.0 D-4D Raised Body Raider on 1 774 units.
South Africa's favourite Double-Cab is the Ranger 2,2 HP XL (Higher-spec shown on image)
The best-selling SUV/crossover is Ford’s EcoSport, which has two derivatives in the overall top 20. We’ve excluded single-cab and extended-cab pick-ups from this list, but the best seller in that segment is the Chevrolet Utility 1,4 Base AC (5 533 sales).
| RANK | VEHICLE NAME | 2015 SALES |
| 1 | Volkswagen Polo 1.2 TSI Comfortline 66kW (5dr) | 10 712 |
| 2 | Volkswagen Polo Vivo 1.4 Conceptline 5dr | 8 827 |
| 3 | Ford Ranger 2.2 HP XL Double-Cab MY12 (replaced, look for used stock here) | 8 381 |
| 4 | Ford Figo 1.4 TDCI Ambiente (Bluetooth) MY14 (replaced, look for used stock here) | 4 719 |
| 5 | Toyota Corolla Quest 1.6 | 4 401 |
| 6 | Volkswagen Polo Vivo 1.4 Trendline 5dr | 3 662 |
| 7 | Hyundai Grand i10 1.25 Motion | 3 366 * |
| 8 | Datsun Go 1.2 Lux – our latest review here | 3 196 |
| 9 | Hyundai i20 1.2 Motion MY15 – read a review here | 3 019 * |
| 10 | Mercedes-Benz C200 MY14 | 3 002 * |
| 11 | Hyundai i20 1.4 Fluid MY15 | 2 915 * |
| 12 | Hyundai i10 1.1 Motion | 2 879 * |
| 13 | BMW 320i Auto MY12 | 2 673 |
| 14 | Hyundai Grand i10 1.25 Fluid | 2 620 * |
| 15 | Ford Fiesta 1.4 Ambiente MY14 | 2 589 |
| 16 | Mercedes-Benz C180 MY14 | 2 567 * |
| 17 | Toyota Etios 1.5 XS 5-dr MY14 | 2 362 |
| 18 | Ford EcoSport 1.5 Ambiente MY14 | 2 221 |
| 19 | Renault Sandero Stepway 0.9 Turbo | 2 127 |
| 20 | Ford EcoSport 1.5 TDCI Titanium MY14 | 2 112 |
Note the following
- For the chart above, we’ve excluded rental sales, as well as sales to the following countries; Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland
- For 2015, all Mercedes-Benz sales are estimated.
- Single-cab pick-ups and minibus taxis have not been included
- GWM and the AMH & AAD brands Chery, Daihatsu, Faw, Foton, Hyundai, Kia and Proton sales volumes, since August 2015, reflect estimates calculated from the aggregated volumes reported and financial data. The AMH 2006 volumes exclude Citroën.
Go here if you'd like to see which brands and models ruled in South Africa in January 2016.
