SEE | These are South Africa's least-expensive new cars from 5 premium brands

What's the current entry point to ownership of a new vehicle from a premium brand in South Africa? Or, to put it another way, what's the minimum amount of money you'd have to cough up these days to get into a brand-new car from the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz?

Combing through South Africa's new-vehicle market, we set out to answer what we thought was rather an interesting question. And we must admit, we were a little surprised by just how much of a variance we found – in terms of body styles and pricing – between the automakers we selected. 

However, we should point out that to avoid any debates about exactly what constitutes a premium automotive brand, we've limited this exercise to just five well-known marques: three big-name German brands, one from Sweden and another from Japan, for balance. Right, let's dive in...