Johannesburg - Car companies often hike their prices around midyear, and given the recent weakness of the South African rand amid the Covid-19 pandemic, this year is not going to be kind to new vehicle prices.
Sadly, this applies to South Africa's cheapest cars too, with Suzuki's S-Presso, which was launched in March, getting a R5000 price hike for July. This brings the base price up to R39 900, according to the latest Suzuki price list, which was released on Wednesday.
The little Suzuki is still, however, the country's least expensive car, with Renault's Kwid and Mahindra's KUV100 both getting R6000 price increases recently. This means the cheapest KUV100 will now set you back R148 999, while the base Kwid is a R150 900 proposition.
Suzuki's other small car offering, the often-overlooked Celerio, is SA's third-cheapest car, with its base price now listed at R149 900.
These cheapies will find increasingly stiff competition from the used vehicle market, as rental companies are expected to offload stock - potentially driving prices down - although new car inflation could counteract that to a degree.
Suzuki's S-Presso is offered in five flavours, with the touchscreen equipped GL+ now coming in at R144 900 and the S-Edition starting at R152 900. The AMT models, with automated manual transmission, have had a R6000 price increase, and now command a R14 000 premium over the respective GL+ and S-Edition derivatives.
The vehicle is slightly smaller than the Kwid, and powered by a 1-litre normally aspirated engine that produces 50kW and the car weighs just 726kg.
2020 Renault Kwid.
The Renault Kwid was facelifted in November, with dual front airbags and ABS becoming standard features. These items are also fitted to the S-Presso and KUV100.
The Kwid and S-Presso are both sold with two-year service plans as standard, with the latter's applicable to the first 30 000km. A service plan is optional on the Mahindra KUV100.
The KUV100 is an increasingly popular option in the entry-level market and it is powered by a normally aspirated 1.2-litre petrol engine. A 1.2 turbodiesel is also available, but it starts at R219 900.
Mahindra KUV100.