Motoring

What South Africans need to earn to afford the cheapest Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz — 2015 vs 2025

Malcolm Libera

 ·26 Jul 2025

The cost of the cheapest Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz vehicles has more than doubled in the past decade, and today, people need to earn up to R37,000 more per month to afford the same car as in 2015.

In 2025, more than 70% of all the cars in South Africa now cost more than R500,000.

One key reason for this spike concerns the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw car factories around the world shut down and lay off workers when lockdown restrictions were enforced, and the demand for cars dropped.

After the easing of restrictions, consumer spending quickly rebounded, while production was slower to return to pre-Covid levels. This created a supply-and-demand problem, leading to inflation.

In South Africa, the poor performance of the local economy and the rand/US dollar exchange rate have magnified this effect, making it exponentially more expensive to import and sell vehicles here.

To reflect the magnitude of vehicle price increases, BusinessTech looked at the prices of an Audi A1, BMW 1-Series, and Mercedes-Benz A-Class in 2015 compared to today in 2025 and how much you would need to afford them in their respective time periods.

In 2015, an A1 1-Series, and a A-Class cost R265,000, R342,000, and R389,200, respectively.

According to financing experts, individuals should spend no more than 25% of their monthly income on vehicle-related costs, which means they would require an estimated salary of between R23,000 per month for the A1 and up to R35,000 per month for the A-Class.

This assumes the cars are financed over five years (60 months) at an annual interest rate of 10.75%, with a 0% deposit or balloon payment.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the vehicles now cost R530,900, R713,395, and R813,124, respectively.

All three have doubled in price, which means that to afford the same cars, one must increase their salary by up to R36,658 per month.

To put this into perspective, the entry-level VW Polo is now R373,800, which is only R15,400 or 4% less than the Mercedes-Benz A-Class back in 2015.

The increase in the cost of this Mercedes-Benz vehicle is more than double the inflation rate over the same period (66.1%), showing the rapid and unsustainable increases in car prices over the past decade.

What’s worse is that salaries have just kept up with inflation since 2015.

According to Stats SA, the average formally employed non-agricultural worker in 2014 earned an average of R17,387 per month, which has increased to R28,231 per month in 2025, representing an increase of 62%.

This massive increase in prices is one of the several reasons why premium European car brands have seen a notable drop in sales over the same period, as outlined by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).

Sales for Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW have more than halved in the last decade, with total sales declining from 74,015 at the end of 2014 to 23,881 at the end of 2024—a concerning 68% decline.

The biggest loser was Mercedes-Benz, dropping 82% to 5,048 sold units in 2024 from 28,993. This was followed by Audi (-70%) and then BMW and Mini (-50%).