According to Naamsa, South Africa's February 2020 new vehicle sales came in at 43 485 units, representing a fall of 0,7 percent, year on year. Here’s what happened in the second month of 2020 in the passenger vehicle segment...

Take note that some brands – including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Haval – continue to provide only aggregate data (and thus no individual model sales).

So, what happened in February 2020 (be sure to check out our list of SA's best-selling bakkies and the country's worst-sellers, too)?

Well, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo remained at the very top of the pile, with the Polo hatchback likewise retaining second (for the record, VW SA also registered 540 units of the Polo sedan during the month).

Ford’s Figo jumped as many as five places to grab third, forcing its EcoSport sibling down one spot to fourth. Toyota’s Fortuner returned to the table in a strong fifth place, with the Renault Kwid dropped two to sixth.

The outgoing Toyota Corolla Quest fell two to seventh, while the Suzuki Swift dropped a couple of spots to eighth. The Hyundai i20 reappeared on the list in ninth, while the Grand i10 fell one place to close out the table.

Other odds and ends

Any other interesting statistics from February? Well, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ended up on 167 units, with the largest contributions coming from the Fiat 500 (35) and Jeep Wrangler (33). Mitsubishi, meanwhile, mustered 132 registrations, with the Eclipse Cross (43) and ASX (42) leading the way for the Japanese firm.

While Ford’s Everest (179) was again far behind the aforementioned Fortuner, it easily held off the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (33) and Isuzu MU-X (26). The Fiesta (102), though, only just made it into three figures.

Haval totalled 916 registrations for the month, well ahead of the likes of Honda (523) and Jaguar Land Rover (309), and even edging Mazda, which ended up on 871 thanks to solid performances from the CX-5 (335) and CX-3 (256).

Hyundai’s new Venue (394) enjoyed a strong February, while the Atos added 186 units for the Korean brand (it's worth noting 11 units of the i30 N hot hatch were registered, too). Kia’s fresh-faced Seltos (377) continued to impress, beating the Picanto (373) to the title of the brand’s top seller for the month.

The Datsun Go added 242 units for Nissan, while the seemingly evergreen Almera chipped in a very useful 426. Opel, meanwhile, ended February with a mere 67 registrations (Subaru, by comparison, managed 76), 20 of which came courtesy of the outgoing Corsa. Peugeot Citroën South Africa, though, improved month on month to 256 units, with the 108 hatchback leading the charge with 81 registrations (and the outgoing 208 not too far behind on 52).

The new Triber added a very handy 432 units for Renault, while the Duster (315), outgoing Clio (281) and Sandero (216) all contributed gamely to Renault passenger-vehicle total of 2 228 units. Behind the Swift, the Ertiga (192), Celerio (145) and Ignis (128) were Suzuki’s top performers, while Toyota’s Etios (644), Yaris (561) and RAV4 (497) all weren’t far from placing in the top ten. The same can be said of the Volkswagen Tiguan (529) and T-Cross (462).

See the top ten table below (and have a look back at January 2020’s figures here):

South Africa’s 10 best-selling passenger cars of February 2020:

1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 2 417
2. Volkswagen Polo hatchback – 2 120
3. Ford Figo – 1 068
4. Ford EcoSport – 997
5. Toyota Fortuner – 975
6. Renault Kwid – 892
7. Toyota Corolla Quest – 884
8. Suzuki Swift – 761
9. Hyundai i20 – 676
10. Hyundai Grand i10 – 674

Original article from Car