SA's top-selling cars for 2008

For those of you interested in who buys what, see if you could have guessed the results of the best-selling cars in SA for last year...

For passenger cars, the list is as follows (with the number sold in brackets):

1. VW Polo (29 476)
2. Toyota Yaris (26 102)
3. Toyota Corolla (24 714)
4. VW Citigolf (15 878)
5. Mercedes C-Class (15 124)

One must congratulate Volkswagen for managing to beat Toyota to the top of the pile - a position the Japanese company has frequently occupied in recent years. For me, the Polo coming in as No. 1 was no surprise. It's good styling, street appeal, and relative affordability (backed by the VW badge) have meant it's been snapped up by everyone from students to 'black diamonds' to busy grannies. The Yaris is a solid choice for second, being small, nippy, cute and going on a whiff of an oil rag. I was quite surprised to see the big gap drop-off between third place, and the evergreen Citigolf, though. This must be a symptom of the much wider variety of cheap, get-you-from-A-to-B vehicles on our shores in the last 2-3 years - meaning that there are other options out there for cash-strapped students and starter-families.

The light commercial market standings were as follows:

1. Toyota Hilux (29 481)
2. Opel Corsa Utility (21 297)
3. Toyota Quantum (20 601)
4. Isuzu KB (17 191)
5. Ford Bantam (11 879)

These positions were quite unexpected from my side. The Hilux coming in victorious is a real coup for Toyota, as I would have expected the Corsa and Bantam to be best-sellers. The latter two are smaller, granted, but they are relatively light on fuel, and very popular with the small-business and student market. I would definitely have put the Corsa ahead, purely on its looks (with it's chunky, agressive lines and colour schemes - yes, I'm a guy) but I didn't expect such a big gap between the two, as they are both relatively affordable little runners. Even though it's not the most fuel-efficient or comfortable vehicle, the Hilux has obviously traded off of it's tough, reliable legacy (goodness knows we needed a haven of reliabilty last year!); and it's well-constructed marketing campaign, emphasising these characteristics, has paid off to win it gold. Toyota's other big baby, the Quantum, can thank the taxi recapitalisation project (as badly managed as it is) and positive sentiment about tourism ahead of 2010 for its bull-run into the top five.

Wouldn't be too surprised to see if the trusty old bicycle makes it onto the list this year...