Poor sales in December

Significantly fewer new vehicles were sold in December 2017 than in the corresponding period in 2016 – 1 008 less, to be exact. And, 1 333 fewer new vehicles were exported. NAAMSA attributes the drop in sales to consumers choosing to wait for new generation vehicles – like the brand new VW Polo. Sales over the December period was also lower than in November because consumers would rather wait to register their vehicles in the new year to increase resale value. Toyota’s top seller in December 2017 was the Hilux (3 382 units), which is also the most popular vehicle in the country. A total of 1 108 Fortuners found a new home while Toyota managed to swing only 7 FJ Cruisers. Ford’s big money maker was the Ranger, with 2 681 units sold, and its runner-up was the Ecosport, with sales of 892. Of the Kuga only 66 were sold. Volkswagen’s Polo was their best seller, but in terms of SUVs and bakkies only 432 Tiguans, 315 Amaroks and 17 Touaregs were sold. Audi’s most popular Q-model was the Q3 with sales of 125, and the least popular Q was the Q7 with only 31 sales. Nissan sold 869 NP300s but the near immortal Hardbody could only reach 95 versus 260 Navaras that drove off the showroom floor. The X-Trail didn’t do too badly at all: A total of 231 units were sold. Land Rover’s new Discovery and Range Rover Sport sold 94 and 93 units respectively while the well-heeled preferred the new Range Rover Velar (68) over the Jaguar F-Pace (48). Another surprise was Alfa’s Stelvio that sold 11 units. It might not sound like a lot but it’s more than all of Alfa’s other vehicles put together. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche didn’t supply their individual model figures, which is why we’re unable to determine how many X-Series, G-Class and Cayennes found new homes. The stragglers were Jeep’s Cherokee, of which only five were sold; Suzuki could only field four Grand Vitaras; three Fiat Pandas were sold; two people bought Chev Trailblazers (Didn’t these two read the papers? – Ed) and only one person was interested in the Volve V90 Cross Country. January is bound to look much better because it’s traditionally a month in which people buy new vehicles. >