The monthly Naamsa stats generally make for rather interesting reading. But, naturally, we tend to focus on the best-performing vehicles in terms of sales. Indeed, we’ve already reported the 10 best-selling passenger cars of January 2019, as well as listed the 10 best-selling bakkies in our market for the same period. But now we’ve decided to take a look at the worst-selling passenger car models on our shores.

Thankfully, Hyundai and Kia these days report their individual model sales figures, which certainly helps to paint a more accurate monthly picture. But, of course, some other automakers (such as Mercedes-Benz) disclose only aggregate sales statistics.

Also, take note that – in order to make this list more relevant – we’ve excluded vehicle ranges that start at more than R500 000. Otherwise, this table would be dominated by luxury manufacturers such as Bentley, Ferrari and Maserati, whose high-priced vehicles traditionally sell in tiny numbers.

In addition, we don’t count sales from run-out stock of vehicles that have been officially discontinued locally (if the vehicle in question is no longer listed on the manufacturer’s local site, we won’t include it in the list below), such as Kia’s Cerato and Soul. And we’ve also heeded the call to include model ranges that failed to sell a single unit.

So, what happened in the first month of 2019? Well, there were no buyers for the Peugeot 308, Toyota Prius or Subaru Impreza, while just a single Suzuki Grand Vitara was registered (production has reportedly ceased, but the vehicle is still listed on Suzuki Auto SA’s website).

Just three examples of each of the Nissan NV200 and Jeep Renegade (the latter perhaps on run-out ahead of the local introduction of a facelifted model, but still showing on Jeep SA’s website) were sold, and four apiece of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Volkswagen Passat.

The Abarth 595 range mustered five sales, while the Peugeot 3008 hit a total of just six in January. The Ford Focus (still listed on Ford SA’s website ahead of the launch of the next-generation model), meanwhile, managed seven registrations, while the Fiat Panda, Opel Adam and Peugeot 208 had to settle for eight apiece.

Models that struggled in December but managed to avoid placing on January’s list included the Fiat 500X (12), Landwind X5 (12) and GWM H5 (9).

For reference, see December 2018’s list here.

SA’s 14 worst-selling passenger cars (under R500k) of January 2019

Peugeot 308 – 0
Toyota Prius – 0
Subaru Impreza – 0
Suzuki Grand Vitara – 1
Jeep Renegade – 3
Nissan NV200 – 3
Alfa Romeo Giulietta – 4
Volkswagen Passat – 4
Abarth 595 – 5
Peugeot 3008 – 6
Ford Focus – 7
Fiat Panda – 8
Opel Adam – 8
Peugeot 208 – 8

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Original article from Car