Toyota Hilux leads the field in September vehicle sales

Toyota once again leads the field in September new-vehicle sales with the ever-popular Hilux in the top spot.

Notching up 3,063 sales, Hilux is 626 units ahead of its nearest segment rival, even outselling SA’s leading entry-level hatchback by 241 units.

This together with laudable performances from Corolla/Corolla Quest (2,061), Quantum (1,329), Fortuner (1,180), Etios (947) and Avanza (572) saw Toyota surge to the top of the leader board for the ninth consecutive month this year, recording a total of 10 837 sales across the Toyota, Lexus and Hino brands.

Commenting on the market, Calvyn Hamman, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Toyota South Africa Motors, said that the “ongoing recession in the domestic new vehicle segment is worrying, although Toyota is once again the only motor manufacturer that has successfully breached the 10,000 sales threshold this year, around 900 units less than the figure we recorded for September 2015.

Of interest though is that Toyota has increased its market share to its highest this year – 22,9 per cent.

“While Hilux is the star performer in Toyota’s product arsenal, our SUVs are the unsung heroes in the range.

Fortuner, which has just been selected as a finalist in the Wesbank SA Car of the Year competition, has succeeded in racking up 1,180 sales for the month; outselling its nearest crossover ‘rival’ which happens to be a stablemate – RAV4 (345) – three-to-one.

Another solid performer is the Prado which ticks over at a consistent 100 units per month. Ditto the Landcruiser 200 which yet again achieved sales of over 100 units (111),” Calvyn concluded.

Hino too recorded a great sales result, ending the month on 348 units. Hino 300 and Dyna combined achieved a class-leading 28.7 per cent market share in the MCV segment.