# Cars.co.za Listings Scraper (`skillmerc/cars-co-za-listings-scraper`) Actor

Scrape used and new car listings from Cars.co.za - South Africa's largest automotive classifieds marketplace.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/skillmerc/cars-co-za-listings-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Kyle Pretorius](https://apify.com/skillmerc) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Cars.co.za Listings Scraper

Scrape used and new car listings from [Cars.co.za](https://www.cars.co.za) - South Africa's largest automotive classifieds marketplace. Filter by make, model, province, and maximum price.

### What it scrapes

Public listing search results from `cars.co.za/usedcars/`. Each result includes the listing title, price, year, mileage, province, transmission, fuel type, listing URL, and image URL.

### Inputs

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `make` | string | `Toyota` | Car make (e.g. Toyota, BMW, Ford). Leave blank for all makes. |
| `model` | string | ``| Car model (e.g. Hilux, 3 Series). Requires `make` to be set. |
| `province` | string |`` | Province filter (e.g. Western Cape, Gauteng). Leave blank for all provinces. |
| `maxPriceZAR` | integer | *(none)* | Maximum listing price in South African Rand. |
| `maxResults` | integer | `100` | Maximum number of listings to return (1-10000). |

Supported province values: Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape.

### Output fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `title` | string | Vehicle title (year, make, model, variant) |
| `price_zar` | integer | Cash price in South African Rand |
| `year` | integer | Model year |
| `mileage_km` | integer | Odometer reading in kilometres |
| `province` | string | Province where the vehicle is listed |
| `seller_type` | string | "Private" or "Dealer" (null if not shown on listing card) |
| `transmission` | string | "Automatic" or "Manual" |
| `fuel_type` | string | "Petrol", "Diesel", "Electric", or "Hybrid" |
| `url` | string | Direct URL to the listing page |
| `image_url` | string | URL of the main listing photo |
| `listing_date` | string | Date the listing was posted (null - not available in search results) |

### Sample output

```json
{
  "title": "2026 Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD 6 RB Raider X Auto Extended Cab",
  "price_zar": 699900,
  "year": 2026,
  "mileage_km": 20261,
  "province": "Limpopo",
  "seller_type": null,
  "transmission": "Automatic",
  "fuel_type": "Diesel",
  "url": "https://www.cars.co.za/for-sale/new/2026-Toyota-Hilux-2.8-GD-6-RB-Raider-X-Auto-Extended-Cab-Limpopo-Bela-Bela/11041272/",
  "image_url": "https://img-ik.cars.co.za/ik-seo/carsimages/tr:n-search_result400x300:f-auto/11041272/2026-Toyota-Hilux-28-GD-6-RB-Raider-X-Auto-Extended-Cab.jpg?v=841307295",
  "listing_date": null
}
```

### Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-result pricing at **$1.00 per 1,000 results**. Scraping 100 listings costs $0.10.

### Limitations

- `listing_date` is not available on search result pages and will always be null. To get the listing date, scrape the individual listing page.
- `seller_type` (Private vs Dealer) is not shown on search result cards and will be null in most cases.
- Transmission and fuel type are extracted from the listing card text when available; when absent, they are inferred from the vehicle name in the URL slug (e.g. "-Auto-" maps to "Automatic", "-GD-" maps to Diesel).
- The site returns approximately 20 listings per page. Fetching 1,000 results requires 50 page requests.
- The site may enforce rate limits for very large crawls. The actor uses a concurrency of 3 with automatic retries.
- cars.co.za uses React with server-side rendering. If the site migrates to client-side-only rendering, a browser-based crawler (Playwright) would be needed.
- On the Apify platform the actor uses residential proxies automatically. Running locally may result in IP blocks for large crawls.

# Actor input Schema

## `make` (type: `string`):

Car make to filter (e.g. Toyota, BMW). Leave blank for all makes.

## `model` (type: `string`):

Car model to filter (e.g. Hilux, 3 Series). Requires make to be set.

## `province` (type: `string`):

Province to filter. Leave blank for all provinces.

## `maxPriceZAR` (type: `integer`):

Maximum listing price in South African Rand. Leave blank for no limit.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of listings to return.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "make": "Toyota",
  "model": "",
  "province": "",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "make": "Toyota",
    "model": "",
    "province": "",
    "maxResults": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("skillmerc/cars-co-za-listings-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "make": "Toyota",
    "model": "",
    "province": "",
    "maxResults": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("skillmerc/cars-co-za-listings-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "make": "Toyota",
  "model": "",
  "province": "",
  "maxResults": 100
}' |
apify call skillmerc/cars-co-za-listings-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,skillmerc/cars-co-za-listings-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bPFSzgsGjQ9feBeN9/builds/HMKS8fzZrzdCWOvg5/openapi.json