Industry report shows that German and Japanese car brands rule in South Africa

South Africans are passionate about German and Japanese vehicles. This has been revealed in the 2020 AutoTrader Car Industry Report, which provides an in-depth analysis of searches for used cars in South Africa.

As the country’s largest motoring marketplace, AutoTrader's unique technology – which incorporates new vehicle taxonomy and vastly improved search capabilities – provides unprecedented insight into the automotive industry and the interactions of in-market shoppers. Hence, it contains some fascinating data when it comes to the most searched for brands, models and variants.

And, irrespective of whether one studies the statistics pertaining to brands, models or variants, there is one consistent theme: South Africans want to own vehicles that are produced by German or Japanese automotive companies.

When one examines the top three brands, it’s interesting to see that all three are German companies.

“A total of 12.2% of all brand searches (48.9 million) went to BMW. Mercedes-Benz has continued its growth in popularity, and it achieved second place, generating 11.31% (45.44 million) of total brand searches. Volkswagen occupies the third spot, with 11.30% (45.37 million searches),” reveals George Mienie, AutoTrader CEO. The top three searched for brands (3.2% of all brands) in SA captured an impressive 33% of all searches.

A similar trend emerged when it came to model searches. The top three most searched for models – representing 0.4% of all models available in SA – accounted for 13% of all model searches.

In pole position was the Toyota Hilux, with 2.8% of all searches (11.3 million). The Japanese bakkie was followed home by two German cars, namely the Volkswagen Golf (2.67% of all model searches, or 10.6 million actual searches) and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (2.65% of total model searches and 10.7 million individual searches).

Data pertaining to variant searches is unique to AutoTrader and a first in South Africa. It can be extrapolated thanks to the fact that consumers can search for specific variants on the site. 

Once again, the Germans came to the fore. South Africa’s iconic hatchback, the Volkswagen Golf GTI, claimed first place (1.5 million or 0.4% of searches). Yet another Volkswagen model, the Polo GTI took second place at 0.3% (1,4 million) of all variant searches. In third place was the Mercedes-Benz C-Class C63 AMG with 0.27% (1.1 million) of all variant searches. It was interesting to see this upmarket and premium car move from sixth place in the previous report.