News / 27 February 2025 / Michael Taylor

How many used cars South Africans buy in a single year

AutoTrader has officially published its latest Car Industry Report, revealing that a staggering total of 358,431 used passenger cars were sold in 2024, which works out to approximately 29,869 cars per month.

The Ford Ranger was the undisputed king of pre-owned car sales last year with an impressive 20,914 units – or roughly 1,742 per month.

Hot on its heels was the Toyota Hilux, which also had a great year with 17,294 purchases.

Interestingly, the Hilux units sold were a year older than the Ranger on average, which can also be seen with the two bakkies’ mileages, as the former had around 104,996km while the latter had 80,397km.

As for passenger cars, the top pick for motorists were the VW Polo, which found 15,710 new homes in 2024.

Not far behind was its cheaper sibling, the Polo Vivo, which sold a respectable 12,835 examples.

SUV fans, meanwhile, evidently gravitated to the Toyota Fortuner, as 8,438 units made their way off the showroom last year.

People in search of a luxury model, on the other hand, mostly went for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which landed in sixth place overall with 6,984 buyers.

In stark contrast to the Mercedes is the budget-friendly Suzuki Swift, which sold for less than R200,000 on average last year and moved 6,136 models.

This was followed by the BMW 3 Series, which has fallen behind its Mercedes rival with 5,753 units, though this was still enough to land it in eighth ahead of the final two entries in the top 10.

One of these vehicles is the Nissan NP200, which has been a hotly demanded item on the second-hand market ever since it was discontinued in early 2024.

The compact NP200 sold a total of 5,405 examples, and the final spot was taken by another bakkie – the Isuzu D-Max – with 4,824 units.

The report also revealed that Gauteng is by far the largest market for used cars with a 56% share, followed by the Western Cape with 19%, and KwaZulu-Natal with 12%.

This means that the three most-populated provinces accounted for an overwhelming 87% of all pre-owned purchases in South Africa.

New trends also emerged in 2024, with Chinese brands seeing a 112% jump in searches, while luxury badges fell out of favour to make room for affordable models like the Suzuki Swift.

AutoTrader notes that 2024 was a turbulent year for both the new and used-car industries in South Africa, with interest rate fluctuations, inflation, and unstable fuel prices all impacting consumer confidence.

Despite this, searches on the platform went up 42% year-on-year from 2023 to 663 million, indicating that motorists who had been holding off on buying a car for the last few years are finally ready to take the plunge, the company said.

AutoTrader anticipates that the market will improve in 2025, and that buying habits will continue to shift away from ageing models from premium brands towards affordable options that are efficient and offer good value for money.