The 65 best new cars in South Africa right now

Consumer Awards semi-finalists
Entry-Level Hatch – Under R250,000
Budget Hatch – R250,000 to R350,000
Compact Hatch – R350,000 to R500,000
Entry-Level Crossover – R300,000 to R400,000
Compact Family Car – R400,000 to R500,000
Family car – R600,000 to R800,000
Premium crossover – R700 000 to R1 million
Executive SUV – R1 million to R1.3 million
Premium SUV – R1.3 million to R1.8 million
Adventure SUV – R800,000 to R1.2 million
Performance car – Under R1 million
Leisure double cab – Above R800,000
Electric vehicles – Under R1.3 million

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The Cars.co.za Consumer Awards have made its return to South Africa, with the panel of 20 judges recently announcing the 65 semi-finalists across the Awards’ 13 vehicle categories, which are all eligible to be crowned the best car in their class before the end of this year.

The expansive list includes model derivatives from no fewer than 25 brands, and they were all available on the South African market on 1 September 2023, with some vehicles like the Ora electric hatchback that will be launched later in the year also considered as they had already been priced, could be ordered by the public, and the judges had sufficient experience with them.

The brands with the most nominations are:

Toyota – 8 nominations
BMW – 6 nominations
Suzuki – 5 nominations

Chery, Omoda, and Ora are all appearing on the list for the first time, too.

In the next round of the Consumer Awards which is due to take place in early October 2023, the panel of experts will score the semi-finalists individually, taking into account various criteria set out for each of the respective categories.

Following that, the top three finalists per category will be announced and subjected to back-to-back testing at the Gerotek proving ground in Gauteng by the combined judging panel on 2 and 3 November 2023.

The judges’ scores for each of the 39 finalists will only count for 50% of the final standings, however.

The other 50% will be based on rankings that the respective vehicle brands represented by the finalists achieved in the Cars.co.za Ownership Satisfaction Survey, which incorporates feedback from thousands of owners based on their experiences with their vehicles.