The affordable new car trend happening in South Africa right now

A new car trend is emerging in South Africa where companies are selling facelifted versions of their existing models as a separate vehicle while still keeping the older version on the market.

This is being done in an attempt to keep prices affordable to the average consumer, while still ensuring that the automaker’s newer products have a chance to perform.

In with the old – In with the new

Cars are incredibly expensive in South Africa nowadays, and manufacturers are continuously exploring various strategies to try to find a way to lower prices for consumers.

Toyota recently lowered the price of the Vitz hatchback by a small but appreciable amount, and VW elected not to raise the cost of the Polo Vivo when it updated the car with new features last year.

Other companies such as Hyundai and Citroen are moving away from their more expensive European-sourced models in favour of importing new, cheaper cars from markets like India in an effort to find more cost-appropriate vehicles for South African salaries.

However, one of the more intriguing trends that has started to emerge is the practice of launching new cars in South Africa while still keeping the old models around.

Two recent examples of this are the Chery Tiggo Cross, and the GWM P300.

Starting with the Tiggo Cross, it is actually a facelifted version of the popular Tiggo 4 Pro crossover, but Chery did not want to compromise the sales of its best-selling unit by introducing the newer version.

A big part of the Tiggo 4’s success is that it is one of the most affordable SUVs in the country, and introducing the new models with additional features and a fresh look would obviously raise its base price.

Chery, therefore, took the middle ground by electing to launch the 2025 Tiggo 4 Pro as the “Tiggo Cross,” while still keeping the original Tiggo 4 Pro around.

This means motorists can still buy the Tiggo 4 for as little as R269,900, while the Cross essentially functions as a range-topping model that splits the difference between the Tiggo 4 and the larger Tiggo 7, costing R399,900.

Great Wall Motors (GWM) did something similar recently with the introduction of the new P300, which is a heavily updated version of the P-Series bakkie.

The P-Series is a reasonably popular bakkie that competes with the likes of the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger, and its main advantage over these two juggernauts is that it is considerably cheaper.

GWM obviously didn’t want to affect this dynamic, which is why the newer P300 is now on sale as a separate vehicle.

Just like the Tiggo Cross, the P300 effectively splits the difference between the P-Series and the bigger P500 units, offering a body similar to the former with an engine taken from the latter.

The result is that the P-Series can currently be bought for R413,050 as a single cab or R444,650 as a double cab, while the P300 is exclusively sold with four doors with prices starting at R599,900.

Admittedly, this is far from the first time we’ve seen something like this, as the VW Polo Vivo is actually a repackaged version of the previous generation Polo, and Isuzu still sells the previous-gen D-Max bakkie as an affordable workhorse for businesses.

Even so, it is interesting to see that this practice is becoming far more common as carmakers attempt to find ways to keep prices down in South Africa’s tough economic climate.