Stuurwiel

South Africa's first fully Afrikaans automotive search website.

Type
Web application
Sectors
Automotive
Technologies
Javascript, PHP, CodeIgniter, MySQL

Driving
the vision

Stuurwiel is South Africa’s first fully Afrikaans automotive search website, built for the visionary client CHANGECARS.

Although the Afrikaans-speaking population in South Africa is relatively small, they are a highly engaged community when it comes to vehicles.

With this in mind, CHANGECARS saw the opportunity to create a tech vehicle platform that catered directly to Afrikaans speakers, allowing them to browse, buy, and sell vehicles in their own language.

This first-to-market innovation positioned CHANGECARS as a pioneer in inclusivity within the automotive space.

For Elemental, this project represented more than just another custom tech build-it was an opportunity to showcase our ability to combine technical expertise, cultural sensitivity, and innovative thinking.

Having already partnered with CHANGECARS to create their core platform, our team was uniquely positioned to understand the business goals, translate them into technology, and ensure the new site lived up to both the client’s vision and our own standards of quality and thoroughness.

The Roadblock

Before Stuurwiel, every major automotive search platform in South Africa operated exclusively in English.

While effective for many, this created a gap for Afrikaans speakers who preferred engaging with content in their own language.

CHANGECARS already had a robust and established platform at https://www.changecars.co.za, but saw the potential to reach this underserved community.

The challenge lay in creating a fully Afrikaans version of the existing platform. This meant not just translating the user interface, but localising every element-emails, forms, error messages, notifications, WhatsApp integrations, and even search terminology.

Afrikaans also introduced design considerations: words are often longer than their English equivalents, creating challenges for navigation menus, form layouts, and mobile responsiveness.

Given Elemental’s role in building the original CHANGECARS platform, the client trusted our deep technical knowledge and industry experience to deliver this ambitious web project.

How We Built It

Elemental leveraged the existing changecars.co.za framework as the foundation for Stuurwiel, adapting it for a fully localised Afrikaans experience.

The project followed our proven development process, with milestones and deliverables structured into two-week sprints for clear visibility and progress tracking.

To ensure accuracy and authenticity, we collaborated closely with a professional translation entity. They were provided with structured document templates covering all site content, which allowed us to systematically apply translations across the platform. Beyond translation, we carefully addressed technical and design nuances:

-UX/UI Adaptations: Adjustments to layouts, menus, and mobile views to account for longer Afrikaans words.

-Character Set Integration: Ensuring proper handling of Afrikaans-specific characters across all components.

-Testing & Quality Assurance: Extensive testing of all features, communications, and third-party integrations to ensure a seamless user experience in Afrikaans.

After rigorous development and testing, the platform was launched and opened to the public, representing a significant milestone in South Africa’s automotive market.

Shifting Gears

The impact of Stuurwiel was immediate and powerful.

The Afrikaans-speaking community embraced the platform, with feedback overwhelmingly positive. Since launch, traffic and leads have grown by approximately 30–40%, directly benefiting dealerships and sellers on the platform.

Stuurwiel also received attention in local media and press, highlighting its role as the first entirely Afrikaans automotive search website in the country. Beyond lead generation, the platform has given Afrikaans speakers the ability to comfortably search, compare, and enquire about vehicles in a way that feels natural and accessible.

The success of Stuurwiel has also laid the groundwork for future opportunities. New features released on https://www.changecars.co.za are now consistently rolled out to Stuurwiel, ensuring both platforms evolve in tandem.

Moreover, the architecture established for Stuurwiel creates a foundation to expand into other South African languages, making automotive search more inclusive nationwide.

For Elemental, this project was a showcase of our ability to not only deliver robust, scalable technology but also to help our clients achieve meaningful differentiation in their markets.

By combining technical depth with cultural insight, we enabled CHANGECARS to unlock a new audience segment and strengthen their reputation as innovators. This case study underlines Elemental’s role as a true tech partner-helping clients move faster, reach wider, and create digital experiences that resonate with their users.

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INTERESTING FACTS

Before committing to a full manual translation, Elemental initially developed a prototype of Stuurwiel using automated machine translation through Google Translate.

While this approach laid a strong foundation and allowed us to validate the concept quickly, it soon revealed the shortcomings of automated translation.

Afrikaans phrases often came out inconsistent or inaccurate, which would have impacted user trust and the overall experience.

Recognising this, we pivoted to a more reliable human/manual translation approach, ensuring authenticity, accuracy, and a seamless experience for Afrikaans speakers.

When launching Stuurwiel, we had one shot to make a truly remarkable impression with the Afrikaans target market, therefore we set about launching a truly world‑class version, not only from a functional perspective but also from a content perspective, setting a new benchmark for quality in the South African automotive space.

CHALLENGES

One of the key challenges during the development of Stuurwiel was the initial reliance on machine translation.

Our early prototype used Google Translate to quickly create an Afrikaans version of the platform. While this offered a useful starting point, it soon became evident that automated translation could not provide the level of accuracy, consistency, or grammatical correctness needed for a professional product.

Inaccurate phrases and clumsy wording risked undermining user trust and reducing the credibility of the platform. Overcoming this required a complete shift to human/manual translation, which added extra time and effort but ensured that Stuurwiel launched as a polished, authentic, and world‑class platform.

Another significant challenge was managing the variations in text length between English and Afrikaans. Afrikaans words and phrases are often longer, which meant that elements of the design such as navigation menus, links, forms, and fields had to be continually refined.

Layouts that worked seamlessly in English sometimes broke in Afrikaans, requiring constant adjustments to maintain usability and visual balance across devices. This iterative refinement process was time‑consuming but critical to delivering a consistent and high‑quality user experience.