South Africa’s leading online motoring platform Cars.co.za announced the 13 category winners of the 2024/25 Cars.co.za Awards (#CarsAwards), sponsored by Absa and the recipient of the prestigious Brand of the Year title at Waterfall City Park at Mall of Africa in Johannesburg on 27 February 2025.



Budget Car: Suzuki Swift 1.2 GLX
Runners up: Hyundai Exter 1.2 Executive, Mahindra XUV 3XO 1.2T MX3

Compact Hatch: Volkswagen Polo 1.0 TSI (85kW) R-Line Auto
Runners up: Honda Fit 1.5 Elegance Auto, Suzuki Baleno 1.5 GLX Auto

Budget Crossover: Toyota Urban Cruiser 1.5 XR Auto
Runners up: Kia Sonet 1.5 LX Auto, Suzuki Fronx 1.5 GLX Auto

Compact Family Car: Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 Hybrid XR
Runners up: Kia Seltos 1.5 CRDi EX+, Volkswagen T-Cross 1.0 TSI R-Line

Family Car: Kia Sportage 1.6CRDi GT Line Plus
Runners up: Volkswagen Tiguan 1.4 TSI R-Line, Chery Tiggo 8 Pro Max 2.0TGDi 390 Executive AWD

Premium Crossover: Mini Countryman S ALL4
Runners up: BMW X2 sDrive18i M Sport, Volvo XC40 B4 Plus Dark

Executive SUV: BMW X3 30e xDrive M Sport

Runners up: Lexus NX 450h+ F Sport, Mercedes-Benz GLC 300d 4Matic AMG Line

Premium SUV: BMW X5 xDrive30d M Sport
Runners up: Lexus RX 500h F Sport, Mercedes-Benz GLE 300d 4Matic

Adventure SUV: Land Rover Defender 110 D350 X-Dynamic HSE
Runners up: Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 2.8GD VX-R, Ford Everest 3.0 TD V6 4WD Wildtrak

Leisure Double Cab: Toyota Hilux Double Cab 2.4GD-6 Raider 4×4 Auto
Runners up: Isuzu D-Max Double Cab 1.9 TD LS 4×4 Auto, Ford Ranger Double Cab 2.0SiT XLT 4×4 Auto

Ultimate Double Cab: Ford Ranger 3.0T V6 Raptor 4WD
Runners up: Toyota Hilux Double Cab 2.8GD-6 GR-Sport 4×4 Auto, Ineos Grenadier 3.0T Quartermaster Trialmaster Edition

Performance Car: BMW M2 Auto
Runners up: Audi RS3 Sportback quattro, Mercedes-AMG A45 S Hatch 4Matic+

Electric Vehicle: Mini Countryman SE ALL4
Runners up: BMW iX1 xDrive30 M Sport, Volvo EX30 Plus Twin Motor Performance

Brand of the Year: Toyota
Runners up: Mini, Isuzu



Three apiece: BMW and Toyota notched up the most category wins (3 apiece) in the 2024/25 #CarsAwards. BMW has the second most category wins in #CarsAwards history (15), followed by Toyota (14) and Suzuki (11). Volkswagen (21) still leads the #CarsAwards category trophies tally, but its advantage is narrowing.

Brand of the Year hat trick: By winning the most prestigious #CarsAwards title for a third consecutive time, Toyota has a total of 5 Brand of the Year wins, followed by Suzuki (2) and Volkswagen (1). Apart from wins for the Urban Cruiser and Hilux, the Corolla Cross defended its Compact Family Car win, this time with the 1.8 Hybrid XR.

Budget Car King: Suzuki won the Budget Car category for the sixth time out of eight iterations of the #CarsAwards programme with the Swift 1.2 GLX. The previous-gen model (also a 1.2 GLX) won the Entry-level Hatch trophy for a 2nd consecutive time in 2023/24. A Swift variant has won a #CarsAwards category five times.

Five in a row: Volkswagen won the #CarsAwards Compact Hatch category for the fifth straight time with a 1.0-litre turbopetrol Polo variant (the 1.0 TSI 85kW R-Line).

Comeback brands: Mini trebled its #CarsAwards trophy tally by finishing on top in the Premium Crossover and Electric Car categories with its Countryman, marking the first time the Oxford-based brand has won a #CarsAwards category since 2017/18.

After winning the Premium SUV title in 2020/21, the Land Rover Defender climbed back onto the winners list in the Adventure SUV category of 2024/25. The 110 D350 X-Dynamic HSE also achieved the highest combined score of all finalists (81.1%).

Widest winning margin – Kia, which claimed its first #CarsAwards category win with the Sportage 1.6CRDi EX (Family Car) last year, successfully defended its title with the 1.6CRDi GT Line Plus variant. It beat its nearest rival (Volkswagen Tiguan) by 4.7%.

Narrowest winning margin – Apart from winning Performance Car and Executive SUV categories, the BMW pinched the Premium SUV title with the X5 xDrive30d M Sport, which edged out the Lexus RX by only two hundreds of a per cent (0.02%).

Closest 3-way battle – The Compact Hatch category had the smallest gap between the first and third places (0.1%), while Ultimate Double Cab, won by the Ford Ranger Raptor, had the biggest gap between the first- and third-placed finalists (11.4%).

About the 2024/25 #CarsAwards, sponsored by Absa

The winners of the 8th iteration of the Cars.co.za Awards, sponsored for a 2nd consecutive year by Absa and endorsed by naamsa | The Automotive Business Council (of South Africa) – were revealed at a glamorous Cirque du Soleil-themed event that was attended by hundreds of guests. Comedian Nik Rabinowitz and radio personality (and #CarsAwards guest judge) Khutso Theledi hosted the evening.

The Cars.co.za (widely known as the #CarsAwards) was established in 2015 to be South Africa’s definitive automotive awards programme – it plays a pivotal role in the company’s mission to help consumers make the best-informed purchasing decisions.

“The Cars.co.za Awards brings together insights of the top motoring experts in the country combined with feedback from real people who drive these vehicles every day to help our users make the best choices for their budget and lifestyle,” says Amasi Mwela, Managing Director of Cars.co.za.

“With 50% of the final scores determined by brands’ ratings in the survey, a vehicle only really stands a very good chance of winning if it is a good product in the eyes of the judges and if its brand delivers solid after-sales service.”



The Cars.co.za Awards, sponsored by Absa utilises a unique scoring system that involves extensive testing by a panel of 19 judges, inputs from vehicle owners (based on their sales-, service- and product experiences of vehicles less than four years old and serviced through franchised outlets), provided by data specialists Lightstone.

To ensure adequate representation and coverage by brand, Lightstone undertook targeted interviews using computer aided interviewing (CATI). This involved sourcing contact information for recently purchased vehicles and calling owners to complete the survey telephonically; this approach ensured each respondent was a bona-fide owner of the target vehicle, says Lightstone. It interviewed almost 5 000 car owners.

Cars.co.za’s extended editorial team chose the 39 finalist vehicles (3 per category) out of a list of 65 semi-finalists. A notable difference between #CarsAwards and other programmes is that all new vehicles available on the market are eligible. This means that a good product launched a few years ago is not automatically excluded.

The combined judging panel (including 15 respected guest judges from various fields of expertise) compiled the finalist vehicles’ scores after they evaluated the cars back-to-back during an intensive two-day test at the Gerotek facility in November 2024.

However, the judges’ scores for the 39 finalists only counted 50% of the final standings. The other 50% was based on rankings that the respective vehicle brands represented by the finalists achieved in the Cars.co.za Ownership Satisfaction Survey.

This balanced approach to the judging process reflects in the results... Whereas the judges’ scores echoed the high owners’ ratings of the category winners’ brands in the Compact Family Car, Family Car, Premium Crossover and Adventure SUV categories, the outcomes of the other 9 categories were either determined by very high scores from the judges (Compact Hatch, Executive SUV, Premium SUV, Ultimate Double Cab and Performance Car) or by superior owners’ ratings of the winning vehicles’ brands (Budget Car, Budget Crossover, Leisure Double Cab and Electric Vehicle).



As opposed to the category winners, the recipient of the #CarsAwards Brand of the Year title is determined solely by market data and the findings of the Cars.co.za Ownership Satisfaction Survey – how owners rated the dealer sales-, after-sales service- and product experience of their vehicles’ brands – and the percentages of purchase-price value the brands’ finalists retained after three years of ownership.

Toyota, which won the first #CarsAwards Brand of the Year title in 2015/16 and again in 2018/19, is now on a run of three consecutive victories. This year, Prospecton-based Toyota South Africa Motors top-scored with 77.2% to back up its Brand of the Year title wins in the 2020/21 and 2023/24 programmes.

But whereas it was a significant 9.2% ahead of the runner-up in 2023/24 (two-time Brand of the Year winner Suzuki), Toyota finished only 0.6% ahead of Mini (76.6%), which had moved up 4 places in the past year to take second spot. Isuzu, which notably improved by five places in 2024/25, finished third with 75.3%.

“The Brand of the Year trophy is the ultimate accolade in the local automotive industry and represents validation from the people who matter most: car owners,” says Hannes Oosthuizen, the manager of the Cars.co.za Awards’ scoring process.

“By providing consistently superior after-sales support through the most extensive dealer network in the country, Toyota has put South African consumers first and – based on the feedback by thousands of vehicle owners – they appreciate that.”



ince the 2023/24 #CarsAwards, the programme has incorporated a consumer experience element and, during the 3 days after the Awards gala, the 13 category winners and other finalists of the 2024/25 #CarsAwards will be on display at the Mall of Africa, which also hosted the inaugural Awards Roadshow in late 2023.

At the Cars.co.za Showroom, sponsored by Absa (located at Waterfall City Park), the motoring public will be able to inspect and experience the 39 finalist vehicles and get test rides in some of South Africa's best new cars. They’ll be able to engage with Cars.co.za advisers, dealers’ sales representatives, as well as #CarsAwards judges.

Absa finance specialists will also be at the Cars.co.za Showroom to advise prospective car buyers, who could buy their new cars, or at least initiate purchases, at the event.