Renault South Africa : On The Up

The Renault Sandero Stepway


This French brand has had its ups and downs in the RSA, but is currently on the up. I believe it was as high as 5% market share in 2001 but fell away after that, to just 1.3% in 2008. It picked up again recently so what is 'doing it' for the brand? Let's look at sales by best selling models for 2016.

Sandero: A compact sized Dacia car sold under the Renault logo

Toyota UK Sales 1965-79 (by model)

The 1965 Corona


Toyota arrived in the UK late 1965 with the Corona model, sporting 'luxuries' rare on a family car at the time. Features such as two-speed wipers and a heater were quite a novelty on a mainstream car. The Corona was soon followed by the Corolla to spearhead the sales push into Britain.

From 1965 to 1968, 1,961 cars had been sold. In 1969 1,211 cars found homes, 1970 1,327 and

GM India/South Africa : A Disappointment

This bakkie wasn't enough to save Chevrolet South Africa


GM has decided to stop selling cars in India but keep on making them there. I find that hard to fathom. By making cars there, surely that avoids import duty and allows the cars to be sold profitably. Despite being in the market over 20 years, it still had less that 1% market share. For that reason the plug has been pulled.

At the same

VW Profit Per Brand : 2016

Car sales going upward look impressive but profit is the important - but often unseen - element of a business. Without it, a company will not survive very long. The VW Group has made plenty of money out gaining an unfair advantage with its defeat device but now it is having to pay for that now. Despite that, it is big enough to cope with the consequences.

So how did the various divisions

Ford South Africa : A Success Story

Way back in 2002, Ford had fallen to the 12th ranked passenger car brand in the RSA. Since then, it gradually clawed its way up to 3rd by 2014, where it has stayed since. The market share in '02 was 2.2% and by 2016, was 11%. So what has Ford been doing right?

It sources models that are sold in mature markets as well as for emerging ones. The RSA is an mixture of such customers so Ford has

Mitsubishi Model Production : 2015

Mitsubishi Motors was recently taken over by Renault-Nissan. It had been through a scandal to do with fuel consumption figures and it was struggling anyway. The company will benefit with new arrangement and ensure its future success. I did a 1997-2014 series that can be found under the label Brand-Mitsubishi link to right of the screen. Now to add 2015.

The numbers come from MMC and are

Opel/Vauxhall Euro Sales - 2012-16 (Nations)

When one looks closer at national sales of Opel/Vauxhall, certain countries are more partial to them than others. So in the final in this short series, let's look at how national purchasing varied.

First up Germany is the biggest market in Europe and where Opel is based. That didn't translate in to sales during this present decade. It was comfortably behind Europe's second biggest, the UK.

Opel/Vauxhall Model Sales - 2016

Neither Opel nor Vauxhall are sold in New Zealand do my knowledge of the range isn't that great. Over the years the Astra have been the main import, sold under the Holden brand. The Corsa has been here too.

Sales were up 5.9%, nearly all of which is within Europe. That is a satisfactory result but not startling, showing how competitive an environment the market is there. So how about the

Opel/Vauxhall Production Locations - 2016

GM Europe have been quite open with data and I hope it continues under the new ownership. However, I expect it to be absorbed into the PSA data. For now at least we can glimpse into the production volumes and where they are generated from.

The nations involved in vehicle manufacturing are Germany, Spain, Poland, the UK, France, Bursa (Europe). Elsewhere in South Korea. The facilities in

GM Europe No More

Production facilities


In 1925, GM bought Vauxhall and Opel in 1929, securing a strong presence in Europe. Eventually the two competing brands were merged into one united operation, thereby moving from a competitive to cooperative arrangement. GM sold Opel/Vauxhall to PSA, the deal expected to be concluded by the end of the year.

In addition, a stake in Saab was made in 1989, and in the year