Features / 11 August 2022 / Albert du Toit

What South Africans are ready to pay for their favourite pre-owned cars

AutoTrader’s latest mid-year industry report detailed the 10 pre-owned vehicles South Africans are most interested in buying, as well as the prices they are willing to pay.

Out of the 349-million car searches performed on the website during the first six months of 2022, these 10 vehicles were enquired on the most by interested consumers.

Enquiries indicate a stronger intent to buy a vehicle than merely searching for it, said AutoTrader, as car buyers are actively looking for more information on a particular model at a particular price.

The data also shows that, when comparing the top 10 most-searched brands to the most-enquired-on, there are interesting facts.

“When comparing consideration (searches) to intent (enquiries), the data shows differences between what consumers initially search for, versus what they end up enquiring on,” said AutoTrader.

For example, Kia did not feature in the most-searched list of brands in 2022 but ranks ninth on the list of most-enquired-on brands, moving up one spot from 10th in 2021.

Toyota, too, moved from third in searches to first in enquiries, and BMW from second in searches to third in enquiries.

Porsche also stood out as the premium sports car maker was the 10th most-searched-for brand on AutoTrader in the first half of 2022, but when it came to enquiries it was not present.