The 10 most popular used cars in South Africa – What they sell for

The Ford Ranger was the most popular used car purchase in South Africa for the first half of 2023, selling an impressive 9,301 units with an average selling price of R433,371.

This is according to AutoTrader’s Mid-Year Car Industry Report, which documented all of the site’s car sales data for the first six months of the year.

It revealed that the second-hand market has made a staggering R65.7 billion in sales so far this year, and that AutoTrader has had 263 million searches on its platform, translating to an average of 17 car searches per second.

The site has had more than 62 million visitors this year – an average of 11 million visitors per month – with most users spending about four minutes and 13 seconds per session.

This has resulted in more than 436 million separate pages being opened, and a total of 175 million consumer advert views.

What’s popular

There are more than 130,000 listings on AutoTrader, but the top 10 most popular models account for 29% of all vehicles sold on the site.

Toyota was the most sought-after brand overall, with its combined 28,061 passenger car sales representing a 17% share of the market.

Ford, however, was able to secure the number one sales spot with its Ranger bakkie, as its 9,301 units translated to 6% of all the vehicles sold this year – more than the total sales of Nissan, Audi, Kia, and Renault, according to the report.

VW was the second-most popular brand after Toyota, which was followed by Ford, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz in the top five. Hyundai, Nissan, Audi, Kia, and Renault were then able to make it into the list of the top 10 best-performing brands.

Interestingly, only six of the 10 best-performing brands had at least one vehicle in the top 10 best-sellers list, namely Ford, Toyota, VW, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Nissan.

Ford, Toyota, and VW each had two entries, while Isuzu also managed to break into the top-sellers ranks with its D-Max bakkie.

Source: AutoTrader’s Mid-Year Car Industry Report.

The cheapest vehicle was the Nissan NP200, with an average price of R168,585, while the Toyota Fortuner has the highest asking rate of around R465,196.

The Isuzu D-Max actually had the lowest average mileage of any vehicle on the list, and much lower than its rivals – the Ranger and the Hilux.

The VW Polo was the most popular used passenger car for South Africans, while the Mercedes-Benz C-Class managed to stay ahead of its rival, the BMW 3 Series, in the premium segment.