Features / 3 June 2024 / Albert du Toit

5 used cars the average South African can afford

While the new-car market has limited options for the middle-class earner, the pre-owned sector boasts several attractive offerings.

There is no one figure that determines who is middle class and who is not. Estimates from the Bureau of Economic Research go as low as R5,000 per month, while others from Discovery Bank go as high as R29,000.

However, averaging out all the available estimates shows that the middle-class South African has an income of around R20,724 per month.

Finance provider WesBank recommends that financially savvy individuals must spend no more than 20% of their earnings on a vehicle payment if they would like to have enough money left over for other important bills and emergencies.

As such, if they were to budget responsibly, middle-class motorists can reasonably afford to earmark R4,145 per month for their daily driver.

What’s on offer

To figure out how much these individuals can realistically pay for a car, we can plug this number into the following calculation:

Monthly payment – R4,145
Payment term – 72 terms (6 years)
Interest – 11.75%
Deposit – 0%
Balloon – No balloon payment
Extras – No optional extras

This shows that middle-class citizens should preferably shop for a vehicle with a selling price of around R209,000.

We took to popular used-car platform AutoTrader to see what’s on offer for this price, perusing the market for low-mileage vehicles under five years old.

The list below shows the types of pre-owned wheels that fit the middle-class individual’s spending rules.

Note that this is not an endorsement of any of these vehicles or their respective dealers. Always perform your own research on a particular car before buying it.