Sales of used cars grew 8% in July as average prices drop

Continued growth in used passenger car sales and the drop in the average used car price in July bodes well for consumer affordability and sustainability of the used car market.

Used car sales momentum continued to pick up in July with sales growing by 8% month-on-month. A total of 32,090 units were sold, reflecting an increase of 2,434 units over June, according to AutoTrader used car sales data. 

The value of used cars sold to date swelled a further 7.3% month-on-month to a whopping R12,932,363,057. Year-on-year growth rose 7.8% over July 2022’s cumulative total of R12,001,698,161.

There’s also good news for consumers. On average they paid less for a used car in July than they might have done in June, according to data on AutoTrader.

 “The welcome news for car shoppers is the used car average price of cars listed has come down from R406,474 in June to R403,003 in July. This drop in average price brings a measure of relief to consumers who face rising prices in just about every other sphere,” said AutoTrader CEO George Mienie.

The sold units came with an average mileage of 72,721km and 2018 average registration year.

Toyota, followed by Volkswagen and Ford, sold the most used cars in July. Behind them, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Nissan, and Suzuki. Interestingly, French carmaker Renault delivered a coup de grâce to Kia, moving up three spots on the most sold list and overtaking the Korean carmaker in the ranking. 

The bakkie model battle continued to play out in July. Ford’s Ranger led the way as the most sold used model ahead of the Toyota Hilux, with the VW Polo and Polo Vivo following in third and fourth. The usual locally built protagonists, Toyota Fortuner, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, BMW 3 Series, Ford EcoSport (imported model) Nissan NP200 and Isuzu D-Max completed the top 10 ranking.

Among the top-selling used variants, Volkswagen’s locally built hatchbacks outperformed  homegrown bakkies. The affordable VW Polo Vivo 1.4 claimed this trophy with sibling VW Polo 1.0TSI in second, ahead of the Toyota Hilux 2.8GD-6, Ford Ranger XL and another Hilux variant, the 2.4GD-6.

In July it was Mercedes-Benz and Nissan that exhibited the biggest gains among the local carmakers with  14.9% and 14.4% month-on-month growth in sales respectively. Suzuki, however, had the largest growth from a non-local manufacturer with a month-on-month growth of 24.3%.