Suzuki Auto South Africa (Suzuki SA) ended 2023 with sales of 49 573 vehicles – up more than 460% from the 8 833 vehicles sold in 2017.
Over the past six years, the Japanese compact-car specialist, which imports most of its vehicles from India, broke its own sales record 25 times.
Suzuki SA sold more than 1 000 cars in a single month for the first time in August 2017, more than 2 000 cars for the first time in October 2020, and more than 3 000 units for the first time in September 2021.
In May 2022 it broke through the 4 000-unit barrier, and in January this year welcomed 5 235 new customers to its family.
This is a new overall sales record for the brand and the first time that Suzuki has sold more than 5 000 new vehicles in a single month.
It also places the brand firmly in third place in the South African new-vehicle market.
Of equal importance is the fact that Suzuki moved 4 481 of its January sales through its dealer network.
This is a new dealer sales record, and ranks Suzuki second overall for the most vehicles sold through the retail network – above perennial second- placed Volkswagen.
The top-performing Suzuki model in January was the Swift, with 1 566 new sales.
“As Suzuki, we are happy to see continuous growth in our sales performance,” says Suzuki SA sales and marketing GM Henno Havenga.
“To put [our] growth in perspective, we have been able to sell more cars
in January this year than we sold in the first two years – 2008 and 2009 – in South Africa combined.
“It means that more and more people are buying into the value offered by Suzuki products and the positive experience at their local Suzuki dealer.”