South Africa's used car market recorded year-on-year sales growth of 8.2% in October, while the average selling price fell by 2.7% to R404,898, according to AutoTrader's latest used vehicle sales data.
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A total of 36,046 used vehicles were sold during the month, up 6.6% from September's 33,824 units and 8.2% from the 33,307 sold in October 2025.
Toyota remained the country's best-selling used car brand, with 6,871 sales, up 12% month on month and 10% year on year. Volkswagen followed with 4,869 units, while Ford took third place with 3,382.
Suzuki was fourth with 2,687 sales, recording annual growth of 15%. It was one of only two brands in the top 10, alongside Toyota, to sell more vehicles than in October last year. Hyundai completed the top five with 2,166 units.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Kia and Renault rounded out the top 10.
Hilux closes in on Ranger
The Ford Ranger remained South Africa's best-selling used vehicle model, with 1,920 units sold in October. However, the Toyota Hilux narrowed the gap considerably after recording 1,803 sales, up 11% from September and 6.8% year on year.
The difference between the two bakkies fell from 296 units in September to just 117 in October.
The Volkswagen Polo Vivo held third place with 1,404 sales, followed by the Polo with 1,325. Both models recorded double-digit month-on-month growth, although their sales remained below October 2025 levels.
The Suzuki Swift ranked fifth with 987 units, while the Toyota Corolla Cross climbed to sixth after sales increased 39% month-on-month to 866. Its sales were also 42.9% higher than a year earlier, the strongest annual growth among the top 10 models.
The Toyota Fortuner, Toyota Starlet, Isuzu D-Max and Hyundai Grand i10 completed the model rankings.
Average used car price falls
Despite the increase in sales, the average used vehicle selling price declined to R404,898 in October from R432,938 in September. This was also 2.7% lower than the R416,302 recorded in October 2025.
Vehicles sold during the month had an average mileage of 69,938km, broadly unchanged from September's 69,991km. The average mileage was lower than the 73,447km recorded a year earlier.
The average model year remained 2021, compared with 2020 in October 2025.
AutoTrader CEO George Mienie said October was a strong month for the used car market, with sales increasing both month on month and year on year.
He highlighted Toyota and Suzuki's performance at brand level, as well as the narrowing sales gap between the Ranger and Hilux.
Among individual variants, the Volkswagen Polo Vivo 1.4 was the best seller, with 1,085 units sold. It was followed by the Volkswagen Polo 1.0 TSI with 865 units, the Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD-6 with 824, the Hilux 2.4 GD-6 with 629 and the Toyota Starlet 1.5 with 619.
