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Cape Town - September was a good sales month for the industry especially for *locally-built models.
Bakkies are the most popular vehicle class in South Africa, but not all of us like a loadbay.
If you still wish to be patriotic, by buying local, but can’t see yourself motoring about in a bakkie, here are the five best-selling vehicles without a roll-bar or tonneau-cover.
The best-selling bakkies in SA... are local
VW Polo Vivo 2942
Spiritual successor to the Citi Golf, Vivo’s continued success is revealing of VW’s innate understanding of the South African market
Trading on the heritage of a platform from two-generations ago, VW’s priced and equipped Vivo keenly.
Its continued sales success, even in a market segment with compact SUV and crossover competition, is a testament to outstanding product strategy.
VW Polo 2334
Built next to its Vivo legacy sibling, new Polo heralded a massive reinvestment into the Uitenhage plant for VW – and it is paying off for them. Between Vivo and Polo, VW has the entire compact hatchback market serviced, with spectrum from the affordable to something more premium in price.
The brand which established hatchback motoring in South Africa, still produces the most five-door cars for local consumption.
Toyota Corolla 1845
They tell us the sedan is dying. That soon, it will be all crossovers in the c-segment. But nobody has bothered informing Mzansi’s car buying public. New Corolla and its reincarnated Quest derivative both continue to be a favourite of government departments and people who value having a boot. Proudly built, in KZN.
Toyota Fortuner 999
Unsurprisingly the most popular locally produced SUV is based on the best-selling South African bakkie. It must be maddening to miss out on the four-figure sales bragging right by a mere unit, but kudos to Toyota for keeping its accountancy true.
Ford Everest 556
The Toyota/Ford rivalry is South Africa’s defining automotive production catalyst. Over the last decade Ford observed the success Toyota achieved with its Hilux-based Fortuner and emulated that, to an extent, with Everest. Since late last year, production of Everest went local, too. And last month, Ford sold 556 Everests. With Trailblazer inventory nearly drained, the bakkie-based SUV market, is there for the taking between Toyota and Ford. Well, until Isuzu’s M-UX arrives, hopefully, to offer a third option.
What about BMW and Mercedes-Benz?
True. C-Class production is massive and BMW is building a number of cars for export, but they’re not releasing comprehensive data. What we know, is that during the current trend of Rand weakness, production is ramping up massively for export. BMW exported 5186 vehicles for export, in its Rosslyn factory, just outside the nation’s capital. Mercedes? A staggering 11638 cars were exported from its facility on the Buffalo river, in East London, during September.
