Cheapest and most expensive new cars per segment – manual and automatic cars

Which are the cheapest and most expensive new cars on the market in South Africa?

We humans are interested in determining opposite extremes – fastest and slowest, hottest and coldest, best and worst, highest and lowest, heaviest and lightest, biggest and smallest, furthest and closest, fattest and thinnest.

Cheapest and most expensive, too.  For cars, let’s look at the cheapest* and most expensive* per segment.  

*Prices listed are manufacturer suggested retail prices for new cars in South Africa as at May 2016, including VAT and emissions tax (where applicable).  Specials are excluded.


Manual car

The cheapest new car with a manual gearbox on the SA market is the Chery QQ3 0.8 TE with a price of R 93 995 without aircon (R 99 995 with optional aircon).  The Chery QQ3 is basically a reworked Daewoo Matiz which became a Chevrolet Spark (when GM bough out Daewoo) which became a Chery QQ3.  The QQ3 is the only officially-listed car, as per an official brand website, which you can still buy new for less than R 100 000!  www.cheryauto.co.za

The Datsun Go 1.2 Mid has now gone through the R100k barrier, at R 104 900.  Next up is another Chery model:  the Chery QQ3 0.8 TX priced at R 104 995.

We know the manual gearbox in expensive and exotic cars is dying out, though a handful of pricey manuals are still available.

Before we get to manual new cars where prices are POA, the most expensive new car with an actual price listed and a manual gearbox is:  BMW M4 convertible manual at R 1 268 602 as standard, or with the up-powered BMW M4 convertible Competition package manual, R 1 392 102.

Exotic cars with a manual gearbox where the price is POA (Price On Application) and definitely more pricey than the abovementioned M4 BMW:  the upcoming Porsche 911 R limited edition, and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage S roadster the Aston Martin V12 Vantage roadster (before the V12 Vantage S) was also a manual, but is no longer available new).


Automatic car

You want to get the convenience of an automatic, so this should be only slightly more than the cheapest manual, right?  Sorry, no.  There are only 3 automatic small cars under R 170 000 new.

The lowest-priced new automatic car is the Suzuki Celerio 1.0 GL auto, at R 154 700.  One up is the Hyundai i10 1.1 Motion auto costing R 167 900, while the Kia Picanto 1.0 LX auto retails at R 172 995.  Seems there is a gaping gap in the market for a budget automatic nearer the R100k mark.

Most expensive automatics?  Can only be exotic cars.  The biggest price listed is the Ferrari F12tdf, just just squeezing in under the R 10 000 000 mark… R 9 942 000.  But hold on – there are cars where prices are not revealed publically.

A new Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster is listed at R 7 995 000, but the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce Roadster is POA, and likely way more than that.

Rolls-Royce has a super-expensive line-up: Rolls-Royce Ghost, Ghost Extended Wheelbase, Wraith, Dawn (the new “small” drop-top Roller) in their “smaller size” range, while the properly massive cars are the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Phantom Extended Wheelbase, Phantom Coupé and the Phantom Drophead Coupé (the biggest production convertible car).  These are, well, as the saying goes:  “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it”…