New vehicle sales continue to plummet

The new vehicle industry's sales performance continued on its downward trajectory in August, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA has revealed.

Johannesburg - The new vehicle industry's sales performance continued on its downward trajectory in August, according to the latest data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA).

NAAMSA said the industry achieved sales of 46 146 vehicles last month, a year-on-year decline of 9.5 percent, a fairly substantial decline of 4 839 vehicles to the 50 985 vehicles sold in August last year.

The association said that whilst new car sales had registered a further substantial fall, new light commercial vehicle and heavy truck sales had held up relatively well.

Passenger sales remained weak, with a 13.1 percent decline, while light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales remained resilient with sales down only one percent.

Year-to-date, sales have fallen 10.5 percent, drawing on from WesBank's 2016 forecast which anticipates the market to be 12 percent down from last year.

Leader in vehicle and asset Finance, WesBank, said its data also indicated that August's weak new vehicle sales were driven by this year's predominant trend of customers shifting to the used market. But this demand in the used market also drove up prices of pre-owned cars by 9.2 percent during the same period, Wesbank said, with the average used deal now sitting at just over R190 000.

African News Agency