SA's best-selling vehicles with a R1m+ starting price

We’ve sorted through the stats to identify SA’s best-selling vehicles with a starting price of over R1-million. Can anything touch Toyota’s new Prado in this space?

In June 2024, Toyota registered nearly 700 units of the Land Cruiser Prado in Mzansi, despite this SUV kicking off at nearly R1.3-million. That got us thinking: what are South Africa’s best-selling vehicles that bear a starting price of over R1-million?

So, we painstakingly sorted through the year-to-date sales statistics – covering the opening half of 2024 – and picked out the country’s 5 best-selling vehicles that start in 7 figures. Interestingly, all are large SUVs, with 3 using a body-on-frame configuration and 2 employing the unibody alternative.

After the 1st half of 2024, the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado was perhaps unsurprisingly at the very top of the pile, with 1 135 units registered. Of course, 694 sales came in June alone, when the new J250-generation Prado finally hit the market. For the record, 679 of those units were new-gen variants, with the remaining 15 taking the form of J150-gen derivatives.

As a reminder, the new Prado has a starting price of R1 296 300, while the previous-gen line-up kicked off at R1 168 400. Thanks to the new model’s strong start in June (likely boosted by pent-up demand), the Prado’s monthly sales average across H1 2024 came in just short of 190 units.

*The Land Cruiser 300 is another popular R1-million+ SUV from Toyota.*

The Toyota Land Cruiser 300 – which is underpinned by the same TNGA-F ladder-frame chassis as the new Prado – took 2nd place with 767 units sold in the opening half of the year. Starting at R1 458 900, the Land Cruiser 300’s monthly average over this reporting period was almost 128 units, with its best month so far this year being May 2024 (175 units).

The Land Rover Defender completed the podium, with 569 units sold in South Africa in H1 2024. The unibody Defender range – which currently comprises as many as 29 derivatives, across 3 distinct body styles – has a starting price of R1 639 600 and runs all the way through to R3 074 400 (a figure that will rise even further once the new circa-R3.5-million Octa touches down).

*Land Rover SA’s current Defender range is nearly 30 derivatives strong.*

Slotting into 4th position, the Range Rover Sport – which kicks off at a heady R2 099 900 – managed a total of 342 units during the opening half of 2024. Sales of the Range Rover Sport have been impressively consistent year to date, peaking at 88 units in May 2024.

And the final spot on the list? Well, the Jeep Wrangler nabbed 5th place, with 182 units registered in Mzansi during the 6-month reporting period. Priced from R1 034 900, sales of the JL-generation Wrangler picked up markedly in May (54 units) and June (57 units). For the record, the facelifted Wrangler is scheduled to arrive in South Africa at some point during the 2nd half of the year.

Models that just missed out on making the list on account of starting at just below R1-million included the Volvo XC60 (starting at R988 400) with 239 units and the Lexus NX (kicking off at R986 800) with 190 units.