Suzuki Auto South Africa (Suzuki SA) in September broke its month-old all-time sales record set in August by more than 600 units.

The company last month recorded 3 134 new-vehicle sales, notching up its best month ever and elevating it to a top-three position in overall vehicle sales in the South African market.

“We are ecstatic about the national sales results,” says Suzuki SA auto dealer sales manager Henno Havenga.

“Virtually every vehicle we were able to deliver to a dealer found a new owner, and dealers report many more customers queueing up for their Suzuki passenger vehicle, sports-utility vehicle or Super Carry commercial vehicle.”

This is the first time that Suzuki has broken through the 3 000-unit mark in one month. 

To put it in perspective, Suzuki set a new record of 1 577 units in July, 2019, finally breaking through the 2 000-unit barrier in October, 2020, with 2 032 units.

In February, 2021, Suzuki hit a new record of 2 142 units and a month later, in March, 2021, Suzuki sold 2 397 units. 

In August this year, sales moved to 2 470 vehicles.

“During all this time, we were facing significant challenges,” says Havenga.

“Lockdown restrictions tightened again, there were severe disruptions and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng ,and Transnet saw its ports shut down owing to cyberattacks.

“We decided from the onset not to allow the challenges to rob us of our momentum or delay our deliveries to customers, and our dealers agreed. The result – a top-three position in South Africa and more demand than we can satisfy every month.”

With total sales of more than 3 000 units, Suzuki now represents 7.2% of the South African market, the company’s highest share to date. 

Included here is the sale of more than 1 200 new vehicles for rental and government fleets, exceeding Suzuki SA’s previous fleet sales record by more than 50%.

Several Suzuki units contributed to the overall sales record. The local arm of the Japanese vehicle manufacturer delivered 935 new Swift units to customers, with 504 people selecting the S-Presso as their vehicle of choice.