Best Value For Money Used Cars In South Africa
Pre-owned, pre-loved, used – whatever they call it, not new cars are very popular in South Africa. If you were to buy a nearly new Merc or BMW, you would still pay those prices, but you will save a lot of money. The seller would have taken the depreciation knock that comes from driving a new car out of the showroom and the buyer will get a nearly new car for a lot less.
But the big market is not in the high-end German sedans or SUVs or the full-feature 4×4 double cab bakkie. Most of us buy second-hand because that is what our budget or financial preferences allow, and we are willing to sacrifice the age or mileage of the vehicle to meet these demands.
The big market for second-hand cars can be divided into two categories: under R150k and under 300k.
Cars under R150 000
This segment caters for student cars, first-time young drivers just starting work, perhaps a second car for a young family or a retiree looking for something affordable and reliable enough for local run-around driving.
These cars will often be compact models with slightly higher mileage, or older cars or both.
Cars under R300 000
Buyers looking for under R300k cars are in a completely different market. They generally look for bigger, more feature-rich mid to upper-mid-range vehicles, cars that will generally go more than R300k new.
The car will be a family car, the primary car in a family, or a business commute vehicle. Space and performance for holidays and getaways are often considerations as well.
Most popular used cars in South Africa
Here are the most popular used cars in South Africa. You would think R300k is too low for some of them and these models will probably not always fall into our R150/R300k bracket, but it will go some way to seeing how South African buyers vote with their wallets.
The thing is if you are willing to trade age and mileage and forgo warranty and so on, you can still drive a pretty cherry BM or Merc or DC bakkie.
The cars on this list are reasonably distributed, with the top-rated VW Polo at nearly 7% to the tenth spot Nissan NP200 at 1.5%.
- VW Polo
- Toyota Hilux
- Ford Ranger
- BMW 3 Series
- Merc C-class
- VW Polo Vivo
- VW Golf
- Toyota Fortuner
- Toyota Corolla
- Nissan NP200
There is a movement among the brands, with the Nissan NP200 recently joining the top ten, while brands such as Suzuki and Haval are moving towards top ten status.
This list is just the models in order of popularity, and not according to any price bracket. If you are shopping according to a maximum price, you will soon get a good understanding if you search for cars under R300k or cars under R150k.
