Johannesburg - The 28th edition of the annual Kinsey Report, which analyses the costs of common replacement parts for new vehicles sold in South Africa, was released this week with Datsun's budget Go hatch coming in with the cheapest basket for the third year running.
The 2017 survey, compiled by industry expert Malcom Kinsey, included 62 of the market's most popular vehicles, classified in nine separate categories. Each vehicle is listed together with prices for common service, maintenance and crash replacement parts, with all components tallied into one "parts basket". The sum of the parts prices is also listed as a percentage of the vehicle's retail selling price.
This year's Kinsey Report also includes a special category for the replacement cost of batteries in eight electric or hybrid vehicles, along with the prices for home chargers where applicable.
The full list including details of each replacement part can be downloaded
, but here are the top scorers in each category.
City cars
Datsun's Go Lux wins the award for the cheapest parts basket among 10 of the country's most budget-oriented city cars, along with the overall prize. Its basket comes in at R44 372.86, versus R59 283.85 for VW's1.4 Polo Vivo in second place and R64 317.14 for Hyundai's i10 Motion in third.
Super mini
Volkswagen's 1.2-litre Polo Comfortline was the cheapest of five superminis with a basket price of R87 991.98. Renault scores second and third with its Sandero Expression (R93 021.61) and Clio Expression (R105 176.22) respectively.
Family favourites
Toyota took the Family category for the third year in a row with its 1.6 Corolla Quest coming in at R71 874.94. The regular 1.6 Corolla Prestige (73 519.51) and Nissan's Almera Acenta (R76 395.03) round out the top three.
Compact crossover
The Winner here is Mahindra's new KUV 100 (R81 597.40), followed in second place by the Peugeot 2008 (R90 920). Ford's EcoSport Trend is just behind in third at R90 943.56.
Crossover
The Toyota Fortuner 2.8 GD auto wins Kinsey's crossover category convincingly with a basket price of R84 992.13, versus R115 293.14 for the second placed Rav4 GXC and R117 148.50 for Ford's Kuga Trend.
Executive crossover
Toyota also wins in the fancier crossover league with its Prado 3.0 VX (R178 390.86), while Volvo's XC90 D4 Momentum (R199 835.90) and Range Rover's Evoque TD4 (R233 258.82) round out the podium.
Executive saloons
Volvo clinched first place in the executive sedan class with its S60 T4 Momentum (R159 862.10) while BMW's 320i followed closely at R161 113.21. Third goes to Jaguar's 2.0D XE Prestige at R171 223.13.
Double Cabs
Toyota's 2.8 GD Hilux has the cheapest double cab basket with a price of R67 066.39, followed the Nissan Navara LE (R78 864.97) and Isuzu's KB300 (R82 971.34).
Single cabs
Nissan scores first and second in single cabs with its NP200 (R53 178.85) and NP300 (R57 546.05). The Toyota 2.4 GD Hilux is third with a basket price of R65 834.83.
Batteries for electric and hybrid cars
As a special inclusion in the 2017 Report, Kinsey has listed replacement battery and charger (where applicable) prices for eight electric or hybrid cars.
The winner here, with a battery price of R22 500 is Toyota's Yaris Pulse, followed closely by its Prius hybrid sibling at R28 300. The only other battery coming in under the 100K mark goes to Lexus' NX 300h at a relatively affordable R35 603.
From there battery replacements become very expensive for cars like BMW's i8 supercar (R106 146), Infiniti's Q50 hybrid (R114 197), Merc's C350e (R124 000) and Nissan's Leaf (R130 226).
But it's BMW's entry-level electric car, the i3, which loses this race badly with a replacement battery coming in at a whopping R339 616.00 - more than half of the car's retail selling price.
Only four of these cars require battery chargers, and here there's a huge variance between Nissan's cheapest at R2 834 and those from BMW and Mercedes at R22 728 and R22170 respectively.