Do South Africa's 10 top-selling cars all have spare wheels?

By Stuart Johnston

The top-selling list for new cars in South Africa makes interesting reading. And, even more interesting, they all have spare wheels, and in most cases, full-size spares.

Given South Africa’s deteriorating roads in many of our provinces – the Western Cape stands head and shoulders above every other province in terms of having great tarmac road surfaces – a spare wheel is an important item.

The Top 10 list here refers to model ranges, and makes for interesting reading. The Polo Vivo is way ahead, despite going into “run-out” phase in the latter part of 2017, and is followed by its stablemate, the Polo Vivo. These two cars have been top sellers since 2010.

Affordability is a key factor in these cars’ success, and this applies to the bulk of the Top 10 models. But this doesn’t mean they are all “cheap” cars. For instance, the Toyota Fortuner range sells for between R445 00 and R675 000, and yet it sells at a rate of over 1 000 units each month! Toyota enjoys success too with its RAV4 range, easily the best seller in its niche, averaging over 600 sales each month.

So, without further rambling, here is the list of 2017 Top sellers for the year, the numbers sold in 2017, and details on their spare-wheel-status.

1. Volkswagen Polo Vivo , 28 402 sales. They have full-size spare wheels, apart from the Highline and GT, which have space-saver spares.

2. Volkswagen Polo 20 087, sales. They have full-sized spare wheels in the Trend and Comfortline, while the Highline has a space-saver.

3. Toyota Etios, 14 686 sales. They have full-sized spare wheels.

4. Toyota Fortuner, 13 696 sales. They have full-sized spare wheels.

5. Toyota Corolla Quest, 12 333 sales. They have full-sized spare wheels.

6. Ford Fiesta, 11 446 sales. They have space-saver spare wheels.

7. Ford Ecosport, 9 920 sales. They have space-saver spare wheels.

8. Kia Picanto, 8 136 sales. They have full-sized spare wheels.

9. Renault Kwid, 8 027 sales. They have full-sized spare wheels.

10. Toyota RAV 4, 7 622 sales. They have full-sized spare wheels.

*In the Light Commercial field, The Toyota Hilux lead in 2017 with a stunning 36 422 sales, making it not only the top-selling pick-up, but also the top-selling vehicle in South Africa. It is followed by the Ford Ranger on 32 786 sales, the Nissan NP 200 (three-quarter-ton pick-up) on 15 079, and the Isuzu KB series on 14 255.

From these figures, one can see that the best-selling vehicles in South Africa are not cars, but bakkies!