Suzuki sold a record 7,292 cars in October. SA's top 10 car brands

Suzuki sold more cars in South Africa in October than in any month before, 7,292 units, and kept its grip on second place behind Toyota. Overall, 61,890 new vehicles were sold, 10.4% more than in October 2025 and the best month of 2026 so far, according to Naamsa figures released on Monday (Naamsa via Arrive Alive, Cars.co.za).

Toyota (including Lexus and Hino) stayed far ahead with 14,495 sales, almost double Suzuki's total and 23.4% of the market. That was still 5.7% down on its record September (Cars.co.za).

Which car brands sold the most in October 2026?

Sources: Naamsa sales figures as reported by Cars.co.za and TopAuto.

Just outside the top 10 were Renault (1,706), Mahindra (1,484), BMW Group including Mini (an estimated 1,312), Omoda & Jaecoo (1,201) and Tata (1,057) (Cars.co.za).

Why did Suzuki and VW sell so many?

Rental companies did a lot of the buying. Of Suzuki's 7,292 cars, 2,232 went to rental fleets, and 1,624 of VW's 6,515 did too (Cars.co.za). Across the whole passenger car market, rental firms took 21.4% of October sales (Naamsa via Arrive Alive).

VW's total was its best since October 2023 and the first time this year it went past 6,000. Kia's jump to eighth was its highest monthly total since October 2021, while Isuzu fell three places to ninth (Cars.co.za).

How did cars and bakkies do?

Passenger car sales rose 13.6% to 45,084. Bakkies, minibuses and other light commercial vehicles grew only 2.2% to 13,689. About 78% of all sales went through dealers, 16.5% to rental companies, 3.3% to government and 2.2% to corporate fleets (Naamsa via Arrive Alive).

Exports grew for the first time since January, up 6.3% year on year to 38,117 vehicles, though exports for the first 10 months are still 8.3% lower than in 2025 (Naamsa via Arrive Alive).

Hybrids and electric cars keep gaining ground. Naamsa says 22,389 new energy vehicles were sold in the first nine months of 2026, already 34% more than the 16,703 sold in all of 2025, and roughly one in nine cars sold in September was one of them (Naamsa via Arrive Alive).

Does this mean car buyers are under less pressure?

Not according to dealers. Brandon Cohen, chair of the National Automobile Dealers' Association (NADA), said a stronger sales number "does not mean that pressure on household budgets has eased" and that buyers are still careful about what they can afford (Cars.co.za). Naamsa pointed to recent fuel price increases as one of the cost pressures facing motorists (Cars.co.za).

With 554,081 vehicles sold by the end of October, NADA says the market could pass 600,000 sales for 2026 if another 45,919 are sold in November and December (Cars.co.za). Sales figures for individual models are usually published separately; TimesLIVE also reported the October totals.