South Africa’s cheapest adventure SUVs to own and repair: Fortuner vs Ford Everest vs Pajero and others

The Automobile Association (AA) recently published its inaugural AA Spare Parts Pricing Guide, showing parts pricing over eleven categories of vehicles in South Africa.
The AA said it identified a number of common parts which consumers may need to consider over the lifetime of their vehicles.
“Based on this, we collected pricing from dealerships in Gauteng to ensure fairness in the comparisons across each of the different categories of vehicles we selected. In terms of the vehicles themselves, we looked at popular and where possible, similarly priced models in each category,” said the AA.
The guide includes 63 vehicle types, including a range of SUV categories – an increasingly popular segment among South Africans given their versatility and compelling price points.
The larger interiors and extra seating capacity makes these vehicles the ideal family car, without compromising on looks, while sitting higher provides a sense of comfort and offers greater visibility.
The adventure SUVs also provide the ability to take advantage of off-road driving, where families can escape into more rugged terrain for holiday breaks.
The AA looked at some of the more popular adventure 4×4 SUVs for sale in the country right now, including the Toyota Fortuner, the Ford Everest, the Isuzu MU-X, the Jeep Cherokee, Pajero Sport, and Toyota Land Cruiser, all priced between R750,000 and R800,000.
For service parts, the Isuzu wins out, at a cost of R7,444 for parts including air filters, oil filters, wiper blades and brake pads. The Everest follows closely behind (R8,086), while the Fortuner beats out the Pajero as the most expensive, at R13,726.
For maintenance parts, the Fortuner is the cheapest at R14,237, while the Isuzu is the most expensive (R24,906). For body repair parts, the Ford Everestoutshines its rivals (R87,757), ahead of the Fortuner (R99,365) and Isuzu (R107,368). The Jeep is the most expensive (R286,909), almost R200,000 more than the Ford.
For all parts, the Ford beats the Fortuner by about R10,000, with the MU-X third. As a percentage of their retail price, Ford’s parts basket is 15.41% versus 16.04% for the Fortuner, and 18.14% for the Isuzu. For the Jeep, it’s 42.14%.
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