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- Toyota Hilux remains South Africa's most popular bakkie.
- Ford and Volkswagen have launched next-generation bakkies in SA but their numbers still trail far behind the firm favourite.
- Isuzu is still selling more bakkies than Ford.
Ford's new Ranger and even Volkswagen's new Amarok can't come close to the March numbers for South Africa's most favourite bakkie.
We look at the sales breakdown for last month, according to the monthly sales report of the National Automobile Association of Manufacturers Southern Africa.
Toyota has not launched a new generation model of its popular Hilux in a few years now - almost nine years ago, to be exact - but that doesn't faze local buyers at all. The current Hilux debuted in 2015 - and it has had two facelifts since then, making it the "oldest" bakkie on the market.
READ | Is the Ford Ranger Raptor the ultimate road trip vehicle?
Ford and Volkswagen have launched their all-new next-generation models of the Ranger and Amarok, both of which are built locally at the Blue Oval brand's Silverstone Plant outside Pretoria. Yet, their monthly sales numbers are not anywhere close to Toyota's monthly tally. March saw the Japanese automaker set an even bigger gap for the two new models.
Last month, Toyota sold 3 920 Hilux models. Of those, government departments bought 276, and rental companies bought 263. The automaker also sold 406 Land Cruiser Pick-Up models, while another 3 588 Hilux models were exported to other right-hand drive markets.
Isuzu is the second-biggest bakkie seller in South Africa at the moment, selling 2 289 D-Max vehicles in March, and just pipping Ford, which sold 2 247 of its all-new next-generation Ranger last month. It's worth a mention that of the 2 289 D-Max bakkies sold, government departments snatched up 500, and only 70 were bought by rental companies.
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Ford exported 5 708 bakkies built at its local plant in Silverton outside Pretoria to the global market. The automaker also launched its single-cab and extended-cab models earlier in March, so it will be interesting to see if there'll be a significant change in numbers at the end of April. Ford South Africa told News24 Motoring that demand was much higher than supply and that there was a waiting list of about 2 000 units.
Both the Ranger and D-Max are finalists in this year's Old Mutual Insure SA Car of the Year competition. The 2023 winner will be announced later in June.
Nissan had a really good month with a boost in NP200 sales. The automaker recorded 1 404 half-tonne units sold. Of these, 157 were bought by rental companies and 19 by the government. The stunning Navara found 475 new homes.
Mahindra sold 987 vehicles, comprising 966 Scorpio Pik Ups and 21 Boleros.
Haval Motors, with a tally of 490 vehicles sold in the light commercial vehicle segment, are still selling a healthy number of GWM P-Series bakkies, recording 372 units sold and 118 GWM Steed units.
Volkswagen's new, next-generation Amarok also went on sale to the public in March, and the local automaker recorded 401 bakkies sold.
Jac Motors sold 76 bakkies; 45 T-Series and 31 X-Series models, while Mitsubishi sold 62 Triton bakkies. In the Stellantis Group, Peugeot sold 37 beautiful Landtrek bakkies, while Jeep brought in 13 new Rubicon Gladiator customers. Mazda South Africa sold six BT-50 models.
