According to Naamsa, October 2018’s new vehicle industry sales came in at 51 866 units, representing an increase of 1,7%, year on year. Here’s what happened in the tenth month of the year in the passenger vehicle segment…

As always, it’s interesting to take a look at what’s happening in terms of individual model sales. We’ve already examined the figures and picked out the 10 best-selling bakkies for the month, and now it’s time to do the same with the passenger vehicle market.

Unfortunately, BMW has “for the time being” again opted to report only aggregate sales data, mirroring the approach taken by German rival Mercedes-Benz not to provide individual model sales figures (Porsche recently followed suit). Kia and Hyundai, though, thankfully started releasing their individual model sales figures months ago, which makes the picture a little clearer.

So, what happened in October 2018? Well, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo leapfrogged the regular Polo to grab back the passenger vehicle sales crown. Toyota’s combination of the Corolla, Auris and Corolla Quest (the brand reports an overall figure rather than individual model sales), meanwhile, remained in third place.

The Toyota Yaris climbed one place to fourth (its highest ranking yet), forcing the Toyota Fortuner down one to fifth. The Hyundai Grand i10 held steady in sixth spot, while the Ford Fiesta remained in seventh.

The Toyota Etios climbed two places to eighth, while the Ford Figo returned to the table to snaffle ninth (at the expense of the Renault Kwid, which just missed out on 733 units). The Kia Picanto fell one spot to the final place on the list.

Other odds and ends

So, what else caught our eye in October 2018? Well, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles again failed to hit three figures, with only the Fiat 500 (25) passing the 20-unit mark. Alfa Romeo sold just one example of the Giulietta and two each of the Giulia and Stelvio.

The EcoSport improved to 561 units for Ford, while the Everest added 350, outselling the Isuzu MU-X (259) and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (51). Only the BR-V (144) passed the 100-unit mark for Honda, while the new Amaze sedan managed 47 units.

The new Kona crossover returned 142 registrations for Hyundai, while the i20 (655) wasn’t too far from achieving a top-ten spot. The recently refreshed Creta (324) and Tucson (264) added useful contributions for the Korean automaker, while the H-1 enjoyed 268 sales.

Jaguar Land Rover’s top seller was the Range Rover Sport (99), with the E-Pace adding 73 registrations for the British group. Mahindra managed a total of 176 passenger vehicle sales (led by the KUV100 on 73 units), while the CX-5 again performed the heavy lifting for Mazda. The Almera (542) was Nissan’s best seller, with the new Micra managing 181 units (interestingly, the Micra Active outperformed the new model with 264 sales).

Opel enjoyed a total of 400 registrations, with the Corsa (103) and Grandland X (82) leading the charge, while Peugeot fell to a mere 48 units. The Renault Sandero (750) only just missed out on placing in the top ten, while the Clio (476) also enjoyed a fairly strong month.

The Swift (494) was again easily Suzuki’s most popular model in October, while the Avanza (615) and Rush (447) added to Toyota’s already imposing total, as did the RAV4 (363) and C-HR (251). Volkswagen’s Tiguan (684) more than doubled the Golf’s effort of 304 units, while the Kombi managed a useful 278 units. The XC40 (85) was again Volvo’s best seller, ahead of the XC60 (67).

See the top ten table below (and have a look back at September 2018’s figures here):

South Africa’s 10 best-selling passenger cars of October 2018:

1.Volkswagen Polo Vivo – 3 009
2. Volkswagen Polo – 2 824
3. Toyota Corolla/Auris/Quest – 2 161
4. Toyota Yaris – 1 729
5. Toyota Fortuner – 1 178
6. Hyundai Grand i10 – 900
7. Ford Fiesta – 888
8. Toyota Etios – 885
9. Ford Figo – 840
10. Kia Picanto – 781

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Original article from Car