It used to be that when you bought your first car it would almost certainly be a hatchback.
When you took delivery of your first performance car it likely took the form of a hatchback too, if it wasn’t a coupe of course, and when it came time to get all sensible in life, a sedan was no doubt at the top of your shopping list.
SUVs have always been cool, of course, but back in the day they were largely reserved for a relatively wealthy handful whose minds were usually swamped by daydreams of conquering the Camel Trophy and wading through acres of mud.
It was a dream for many.
But now, it seems, every second driver is parading around in an SUV or a crossover of sorts, many of which would never face up to a challenging off-road trail. Granted, many of our roads are becoming a formidable challenge of their own.
The Automotive Business Council (Naamsa) sales figures show us that SUVs and crossovers collectively overtook hatchbacks as the most popular vehicle type in South Africa back in 2021, accounting for 45.2% of the market versus 38% for hatches.
Since then these ‘pavement hoppers’ as they were once known - presumably in the days when we still had pavements - have gobbled up an even bigger share of the market.
So far in 2024, SUVs and crossovers command a 51.8% market share in the passenger segment, that excludes bakkies, up from 50.37% during the equivalent period in 2023, according to industry-wide figures released by Hyundai.
Hatchbacks trail far behind at 35.5%, but they’re still way more popular than sedans, which have a share of just 4.28%, putting them behind MPVs and minivans, which command 7.58%.
And it seems that young South Africans, who traditionally gravitated to their Golfs and Polos, have also moved with the high-riding times, with SUVs recently overtaking hatchbacks as the most popular vehicle type among under-35s, Lightstone Auto reported.
Still not convinced that crossovers are taking over? An interesting case in point is the Toyota Starlet Cross that was launched in July.
ALSO READ: Toyota Starlet Cross has arrived: here’s how it differs from the Starlet hatchback
Riding 20mm higher off the ground than the regular Starlet hatch and boasting a more adventurous exterior design largely shared with its Suzuki Fronx twin, the Starlet Cross has outsold its hatchback equivalent in its first two full months of sales, with 1,894 units finding homes in August and September, versus 1,468 in the case of the Starlet hatch.
As a result the latter’s quarterly sales have sunk from 3,537 units in the first quarter to 2,690 in the third quarter.
We see a similar story unfolding in the Suzuki camp. While Baleno hatch sales actually increased from 1,754 to 2,128 in the two aforementioned quarters, the Fronx crossover almost doubled its popularity from 1,142 to 2,194 unit sales.
In spite of all this, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo remains hugely popular, selling up a storm with 6,932 sales in the past quarter.
But it is facing increasing competition from newcomers like the Hyundai Exter, which notched up 453 sales in September despite only being launched halfway through the month.
It’s a good start, albeit too early to tell whether it will cannibalise its Grand i10 sibling, which still managed an impressive volume of 1,062 last month.
And don’t overlook the Mahindra 3X0, the reinvented XUV300 recently launched at a highly competitive R254,999.
The Polo Vivo will also face significant internal competition in the coming years, from a new compact SUV model that’s set to be built locally from 2027.
Quite telling is that VWSA CEO Martina Biene recently revealed to local media that the company was not planning to reinvent the current Polo as the ‘new’ Polo Vivo later in the decade as such a car would compete too closely with the new ‘SUV product’.
While cheaper hatchbacks like the Polo Vivo, and even Suzuki’s Swift, continue to sell in droves, things are not looking as rosy for the more premium offerings in the market.
Sales of the current Volkswagen Polo have almost halved in the past five years, declining from 6,526 units in the third quarter of 2019 to 3,319 in the most recent quarter.
The segment above that is all but dead, with just the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 remaining in the non-premium space, although Volkswagen is hoping to reignite things with the reintroduction of the Golf 8.5 TSI from early next year.
We’re fast moving to a point where South Africans will only buy hatchbacks if they’re cheap or if they’re really fast and exciting, and preferably with a GTI or R badge on the tailgate.
But what is driving this mass migration to higher-riding vehicles?
Those we spoke to provided a variety of reasons.
“That answer is very, very easy,” said IOL reader Karen Calitz, after choosing the Toyota Starlet Cross over the hatch. “It has a higher ground clearance than many other vehicles”.
Mekoa Sereme added: “Due to the bad conditions of our roads out there, I’d rather buy the Toyota Starlet Cross, because of its ground clearance and practicality.”
Mpho Mahlangu, founder of the Cars with Shami YouTube channel and a contributor on IOL Motoring, feels that South Africans are attracted to the feelings of superiority they feel when driving an SUV.
“I think people, especially coming from hatchbacks, feel a bit more superior when they’re in a higher-riding car, and obviously this is something that manufacturers have also shoved onto consumers, to a degree.
“But besides that, one could even argue that you have better visibility of your surroundings, and a bit more comfort in an SUV,” Mahlangu added.
Of course there are many who say they prefer SUVs because they are stylish and trendy, while a great deal of motorists appreciate the “commanding” feeling of sitting above traffic. Albeit with more and more people buying SUVs, it’s only a matter of time before that last perk cancels itself out, if it hasn’t already.
Interestingly, many people say they feel safer behind the wheel of an SUV, but that is a tricky argument with many factors to consider.
Bringing simple physics into the equation, a vehicle that is higher off the ground is far more likely to roll over if you suddenly swerve for an obstacle in your path.
This is particularly true in the case of bakkie-based SUVs like the Toyota Fortuner and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. Not only do they have high centres of gravity, but they also operate in rear-wheel drive mode in everyday on-road driving situations.
But conversely, a taller and heavier vehicle is more likely to protect you in a collision with another vehicle, assuming that said vehicle isn’t even heavier and taller.
But it could also be argued that many modern crossovers, particularly those that are medium sized and based on conventional ‘unibody’ car platforms, could offer the best balance between collision avoidance and occupant protection, or ‘active’ and ‘passive’ safety as the experts like to put it.
As a rule though, cars that are lower to the ground offer superior handling as well as better fuel consumption due to their lower air resistance.
Regardless, it seems that South Africans simply can’t get enough of their crossovers and SUVs.
IOL