Price of South Africa’s favourite Audi, BMW, and Mercedes – 2000 vs 2025

South Africans are paying up to R880,000 more for a luxury German car today than they were 25 years ago.

Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are among the most sought-after brands in the country, but their prices have surged over the last two and a half decades at a much faster rate than the average salary.

Sign of the times

The big three have always been premium brands, but their prices used to be more affordable relative to the average middle-class salary, making them an aspirational purchase for many households once people got further into their careers.

To get a better sense of how much these prices have risen over the years, TopAuto looked at the starting rate for three of the brands’ best-selling cars, from 2000 to 2025.

The models in question are the midsize sedans of the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which are still very popular today even with the industry’s shift towards SUVs.

This is how much you would have paid for an A4, 3 Series, and C-Class in South Africa in 2000, compared to 2025.

All three brands have seen a staggering increase over the last 25 years, with the Audi going up by 443%, the BMW by 416%, and the Mercedes by 495%.

Admittedly, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, as the product lineups we have today are not identical to the ones from 2000.

Most notably, the current A4 is only sold in an exclusive Black Edition specification, which inflates its starting price, but it nonetheless shows how much the going rate for these cars has gone up.

To put things in perspective, the average formal sector salary in South Africa in 2000 was around R90,000 per annum, meaning a luxury German car was just less than the equivalent of two year’s salary.

In contrast, the average wage today clocks in at R26,800 per month, or R321,600 per year, meaning that you’ll now need to spend between 2.8 and 3.3 years’ salary to afford one.

In effect, this means their cost has bloated by approximately 50% in real terms.

There are several reasons for these enormous price changes, starting with the rand’s deteriorating performance over the same time period.

In 2000, the rand was trading at R6.39 to the US dollar, but this has since fallen to R18.51 to the dollar as of January this year, making it far more expensive to import cars.

Compounding this issue is the fact that South Africa has raised import duties and taxes on vehicles with the aim of protecting local carmakers, harming the prospect of something like the Audi A4.

However, BMW and Mercedes-Benz both have factories in the country that have produced the 3 Series and C-Class for decades, though the former eventually switched over to make the X3 SUV instead.

In other words, even with protections in place to support local manufacturers, BMW and Mercedes cars are still incredibly high relative to the typical income.

Another problem is emissions regulations, which have impacted the price of cars made in South Africa and many other countries.

Stricter government requirements for vehicle emissions means automaker are spending millions to develop newer, more eco-friendly engines, the costs of which are then passed on to the consumer.

One other aspect to consider is that cars have seen massive advancements since the start of the millennium, with new safety features and technology that has quickly become an expectation for contemporary buyers.

Items like 360-degree cameras, blind-spot monitors, automatic emergency braking, infotainment screens, digital driver displays, more onboard computers, and better materials needed are significant contributors to the cost of new cars, and since luxury models tend to offer more of these selling points than other vehicles, it’s less surprising to see that a brand like Audi, BMW, or Mercedes would charge a higher premium for it.