SA vehicle sales continue upward trend

After showing a successful rebound in the month of September for the new vehicle sales in the Southern African Customs Union, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) announced this week that the remarkably strong domestic sales trend experienced last month had continued in October.
The association said that the recent strength in the domestic market could result in overall new vehicle sales for 2014 reaching levels similar to those that were recorded in 2013. “Domestic new vehicle sales, despite subdued economic growth and pressure on consumers’ disposable income for the month of October 2014, in aggregate terms, at 59 262 units reflected a substantial improvement of 2 654 vehicles or a gain of 4.7% compared to the 56 608 vehicles sold in October last year,” NAAMSA said.

“Overall, out of the total reported Industry sales of 59 262 vehicles, 77.2% represented dealer sales, 14.3% represented sales to the vehicle rental Industry, 4.3% to government and 4.2% to Industry corporate fleets,” the association added. “Assisted by another strong contribution by the car rental industry, which accounted for 19.9% of all new cars sold during the month of October, 2014 the latest monthly new car market had performed above expectations and at 40 666 units reflected an improvement of 646 vehicles or a gain of 1.6% compared to the 40 020 new cars sold in October last year.”
“The star performance for the month represented domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini buses at which 15 827 units during October, 2014 had registered exceptionally strong gains,” the association said.