Ford Ranger starts 2018 with a bang

THE Ford Ranger has started 2018 where it left off at the end of last year, by topping the 4x4 sales charts.

With January 4x4 sales counted, the Ford Ranger outsold its biggest competitor, the Toyota Hilux, by just 12 units (2892 versus 2880). There’s then daylight between the next-best 4x4, Nissan’s Navara, which pushed out 1323 units.

Significant growth in the Light Commercial (LCV) segment saw sales increase by 20.3 per cent overall, compared to January 2017 figures. In fact, 4x4 LCV sales were up a substantial 26.6 per cent.

Tony Weber, the chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), suggested that the strong sales growth was indicative of the tough competition within the market segments.

“2017 was a record year for the industry and we’re pleased to see that strength continuing in the January 2018 sales results. Notably there was very strong growth in business sales of SUVs and Light Commercials.” Mr Weber said.

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The growth of the LCV market is largely due to an increase in business purchases, which was up 26.7 per cent over the 2017 comparative sales. Private purchases were up 11.1 per cent.

When combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, the Toyota Hilux was the best-selling vehicle on the overall sales charts (3860 units). It was followed by Ford Ranger 4x4 and 4x2 (3260); Mazda3 (3201); Toyota Corolla (2776); and Mazda CX-5 (2152).