2023 used car sales: Foot still on the gas

Ford Ranger continues to dominate model sales, closing the gap with the Toyota Hilux.

I have always held the belief that the used car market will always do well in SA. This has proven to be true prior and after Covid. The used car market is bustling. Let's face it, not many can walk into a showroom and order a brand new car. Many prefer to buy newzd cars that costs a good percentage lower in price.

The foot has certainly not come off the gas in the used car market. In 2023 the number of used cars sold rose by 4.6% year-on-year. Overall, 367,075 used cars with an average selling price of R399,163 were sold, according to AutoTrader data.

Sales of an additional 17,000-odd units in 2023 and increased average selling price helped drive up the total value of used cars sold by 7.7% year-on-year. Amounting to a whopping R146.5 billion, 2023’s figure outperformed the previous year’s by some R10.5 billion.

used cars

The Toyota brand continued to fuel car shoppers’ passions. Like it did in 2022, the Japanese brand sold the most used cars (60,296) in 2023. Volkswagen and Ford remain in the slipstream, with BMW and Mercedes-Benz making up the top five.

Asian brands continued to make inroads into the domestic car market.

“Suzuki was the star of the brand used sales growth show posting the biggest year-on-year growth of 28.8%. Kia too was in the driver’s seat with growth of 16.6%,” says AutoTrader CEO George Mienie.

German carmakers might find the data worrisome. Of the top ten brands, only German premium automakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi (which lost two spots in the ranking) posted a dip in sales. Even Volkswagen’s ever-popular VW Polo, the third most sold model in 2023, is coming under pressure with used sales slipping by -4.54% year-on-year.

Mirroring 2022, the most popular models were the Ford Ranger in first place with 20,156 used cars sold, followed by the Toyota Hilux, VW Polo, VW Polo Vivo and the Toyota Fortuner. In 2022 the Ranger bakkie just managed to clinch the win over rival Hilux. But in 2023, the Ranger widened the gap growing sales by 15.96% against the Hilux’s 2.25%. The model with the highest sales growth was the Kia Picanto. The Korean hatchback posted sales growth of 18%.

Volkswagen’s much-loved hatchback, the VW Polo 1.0TSI, bagged the variant sales crown selling 9,318 units ahead of sibling VW Polo Vivo 1.4, and a trio of bakkies in the form of the Toyota Hilux 2.8GD-6, Ford Ranger XL and Toyota Hilux 2.4GD-6. Adventure SUV Jeep Wrangler Sahara made a showing in 6th position with 3,007 sales.

Top 10 models sold in 2023

Ranked by most sold	Most Sold Models	Used Car Sales	Average Price	Average Mileage	Average Age
1	Ford Ranger	20 156	R444,020	86,206	5 years old
2	Toyota Hilux	17 555	R453,621	104,125	6 years old
3	Volkswagen Polo	16 140	R263,120	65,495	5 years old
4	Volkswagen Polo Vivo	10 990	R192,989	63,236	5 years old
5	Toyota Fortuner	9 169	R461,943	103,691	6 years old
6	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	7 850	R438,692	95,956	8 years old
7	BMW 3 Series	6 855	R372,799	101,209	8 years old
8	Ford EcoSport	6 032	R242,056	57,116	5 years old
9	Nissan NP200	4 506	R168,833	81,542	5 years old
10	KIA Picanto	4 460	R168,318	45,386	4 years old