Top 10 best-selling passenger cars in South Africa

2017 was a tough year for South Africa’s economy, which fed into all sectors of the market.

Low consumer and business confidence led to low economic activity, which ultimately pushed the South African economy into a brief recession in the second quarter of the year, as households came under financial strain.

However, despite the economic slump, South Africa’s new vehicle industry bucked the trend, ending 2017 in positive territory. Despite December 2017’s year-on-year sales declining 2.4%, the year-to-date new car sales for 2017 grew 1.8%.

Data from lenders such as WesBank also showed that there was a continued shift back to new vehicle purchases among South Africans, especially when measuring demand through the number of vehicle finance applications received.

Demand for new vehicles rose 6.4% in December, while demand for used vehicles slowed 0.2%, the group said.

Annual sales data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) showed that a total of 557,586 new vehicles were sold in South Africa during 2017.

Data group Lightstone has supplied a list of the top 10 best-selling passenger vehicles in 2017:

VW Polo Vivo hatch & sedan

• Number sold: 28,402
• Price: from R179,300

VW Polo hatch & sedan

• Number sold: 22,575
• Price: from R234,200

Toyota Etios

• Number sold: 14,686
• Price: from R165,500

Toyota Fortuner 

• Number sold: 13,696
• Price: from R448,900

Toyota Corolla Quest 

• Number sold: 12,333
• Price: from R212,700

Ford Fiesta

• Number sold: 11,446
• Price: R229,400

Ford EcoSport

• Number sold: 9,920
• Price: from R255,400

Kia Picanto

• Number sold: 8,140
• Price: from R137,995

Renault Kwid

• Number sold: 8,027
• Price: from R124,900

Toyota RAV4

• Number sold: 7,622
• Price: from R378,400

Read: South Africans returned to buying new vehicles in 2017 as the used market declined