Suzuki breaks all major records in one month

There is a buzz in the Johannesburg head office of Suzuki Auto South Africa after the brand broke virtually every single sales record in one month.

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Naamsa, the automotive industry business council, reported on Monday that Suzuki Auto South Africa was the third best-selling vehicle manufacturer in January, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

• Top 3 position for Suzuki as it sets new sales record
• Swift becomes first Suzuki model to sell more than 1 000 units in a month
• All dealers outperform their targets with new all-time dealer channel record
• Suzuki Bassonia sets new single dealer sales record with 161 sales

This is on par with the highest rank ever achieved by Suzuki and the highest overall sales – 3 232 vehicles – for the company. Equally impressive, notes the Naamsa statistics, is that the dealer network sold 2 551 of these units, their highest sales figure ever.

“A couple of new dealers joined the Suzuki family recently. This grew our network to 78 dealers,” says Henno Havenga, Manager of Auto Dealer Sales at Suzuki Auto South Africa.

“And what a fitting welcome to our new dealers to see their peers outperform all previous sales records. In fact, our top five dealers sold a combined 530 new Suzuki models in January and twenty dealers, from Klerksdorp to Gqeberha, each sold more than 50 units in the month.”

The top five dealers were Bassonia (161 units, a new all-time dealer record), Northcliff (104 units), Menlyn (93 units), Bryanston (89 units) and Bramley (83 units).

While Suzuki’s dealer network deserves a lot of the credit for helping to push the brand’s sales into previously unheard-of territory, the corporate and fleet sales team also outperformed all expectations. In January, this division sold 681 vehicles to corporate, fleet and governmental customers.

In its review of the national sales figures, Naamsa notes that the industry is gradually recovering from its COVID-19 related slump and that domestic sales grew by 19.5% in comparison with January 2021. In contrast, Suzuki jumped by more than 73% when compared to January 2021.

“Today we also celebrate a new milestone for our much-loved Suzuki Swift and Swift Sport. In January, it became the first Suzuki model range to sell more than 1 000 units in a single month,” says Havenga.

A total of 1 058 Suzuki Swift 1.2 and 11 Swift Sport models were sold in January. Seven other models, namely the S-Presso, Jimny, Super Carry, Dzire, Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, and Baleno, recorded triple-digit sales.

The record sales in January sets a firm foundation for Suzuki Auto, its dealer network, and its customers for the rest of 2022.

“We have been working hard with our head office in Japan to increase our order volumes and sourcing destinations, widen our product offering and contain price increases. This is already evident in our range today but will become even more clear as we introduce a host of product upgrades and new models in the coming months,” says Havenga.

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