Features / 19 March 2025 / Michael Taylor

Best-selling budget cars in South Africa

Budget-friendly cars under R300,000 are one of the most popular segments in South Africa, as shown by Naamsa’s new sales data for February 2025.

The Suzuki Swift is the fan-favourite in this respect, as it sold an impressive total of 2,351 units, making it the second-most popular vehicle in the country behind the Toyota Hilux bakkie.

This was closely followed by the locally-made VW Polo Vivo, which received 2,187 new customers.

These two models were significantly ahead of the competition, as they were the only budget models on the market to achieve more than 2,000 sales.

The Toyota Starlet, in contrast, saw a huge month-on-month dip from 2,180 to 1,279 purchases, though this was still enough to land it in third place.

Right behind it was the Hyundai Grand i10, which grabbed fourth with 1,253 units; and the fifth spot was taken by the Chery Tiggo 4 Pro, which moved 1,147 units.

The top five are therefore unchanged from January, though the top 10 did see a few changes with the Suzuki Fronx moving up from ninth to sixth place with 1,123 buyers.

This puts it ahead of its Toyota equivalent, the Starlet Cross, which sold 1,003 units.

Next up was the Kia Sonet, which barely makes the R300,000 cut-off thanks to the recently launched entry-level LS trim, which no doubt helped it to sell 873 examples.

After this was the consistently popular Nissan Magnite crossover with 808 transactions, beating out its twin – the Renault Kiger – which didn’t make the top 10.

Last up was the Renault Kwid, which knocked out the Toyota Vitz and claimed the 10th spot with 750 units.