SA VEHICLE SALES TAKE ANOTHER KNOCK

It was a case of mixed signals for the South African motor industry as sales figures for the month of January 2009 were released. As expected these were quite dismal. The overall market was down 34.4% over January 2008 but passenger cars were up 6% over December 2008. The light commercial vehicles (LCVs) market where vehicles like Toyota Hilux and Mitsubishi Triton play was down 9.4% over December 2008. This is the market that has been driving growth over the past two years.

Once again the Hilux is the biggest selling vehicle of any type in Mzansi. Unfortunately the CitiGolf is still selling well even after all these years of unsafe motoring. It's interesting that the 3 Series has been outclassed by the Merc C-Class even after it was facelifted in October 2008.

The top-selling passenger cars of January 2009:

Volkswagen Polo (1 533)

Mercedes-Benz C-Class (1 457)

Toyota Yaris (1 312)

VW CitiGolf (1 079)

BMW 3 Series (960)

Toyota Corolla (918)

VW Polo Classic (618)

Ford Fiesta (597)

Honda Jazz (580)

Opel Corsa (552)

Best-selling LCVs were:

Toyota Hilux (1 583)

Opel Corsa Utility (1 278)

Toyota Quantum (1 220)

Isuzu KB (896)

Ford bantam (496)

Nissan NP300 Hardbody (444)

Nissan NP200 (412)

Ford ranger (376)

Toyota Land Cruiser PU (229)

Mitsubishi Triton (211)