These are the 10 best used cabriolets you can buy for under R200,000
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Spring has sprung and warmer weather is most certainly on the way. SA’s generally temperate climate means ours is a country well suited to open-top motoring, particularly at this time of the year.
What are your options when shopping for a used convertible? Based on AutoTrader’s data covering the first eight months of 2021, there are plenty. However, here we’re going to concentrate on the most searched for sub-R200,000 choices — a price bracket that has proved especially popular with prospective buyers in this segment.
Munich’s premium automaker takes the first two spots on the table of most searched for open-top models, with around R40,000 separating the average list prices of the BMW 1 Series Cabriolet and BMW Z4 roadster, despite similar average mileage. The fifth-placed BMW 3 Series Cabriolet, meanwhile, has the oldest average registration year at 2002. Note that convertible versions of the 1 and 3 Series have since been shifted into the 2 and 4 Series line-ups, respectively.
The diminutive Fiat 500C boasts the most recent average registration year (2013) and lowest average mileage on the list. This model, of course, features a fixed-profile convertible body style, which means it effectively employs a full-length retractable fabric sunroof. The best of both worlds, if you will.
Image: Supplied
The Mercedes-Benz SLK roadster (which switched to the SLC badge in 2016 before going out of production four years later) and Mercedes-Benz CLK Cabriolet (a moniker that was likewise retired in 2010) have similar average list prices, mileage and registration years, though the former is the more popular option.
Ingolstadt has three representatives in the bottom half of the table, including the Audi A3 Cabriolet and Audi A5 Cabriolet, with the latter commanding a R30,000 average price premium over the former. The Audi TT Roadster is another open-air option from the German firm, though its average mileage is third highest on the list at nearly 160,000km.
Finally, the Mazda MX-5 has the second most affordable average price (R126,623) of the 10 models, with only the aforementioned Z4 coming in below the Japanese roadster. It’s interesting that the MX-5 finds itself at the foot of the list in terms of search queries in this price segment considering it’s the best-selling two-seater convertible in history.
“South Africans are gearing up for the summer months ahead and it’s interesting to note what sort of budgets they are working with. We see nearly 13%of all price-related searches for cabriolets on AutoTrader from January to August 2021 were performed at R200,000 or below,” said AutoTrader CEO George Mienie.
