New car sales continue to improve

Commenting on the new vehicle sales statistics for the month of September, NAAMSA said that for the fourth month in succession, aggregate domestic new vehicle sales had recorded gains.

Despite the subdued economy, compounded by political and economic policy uncertainty, the new vehicle market had registered encouraging gains lead by upward momentum in the new light com- mercial vehicle and new car segments. New vehicle exports had also registered strong gains.

The recent sharp increase in the Reserve Bank’s leading indicator and the improvement in the Purchasing Manager’s Index suggested that further improvement in domestic sales could be expected in the months ahead.

In the event, September aggregate new vehicle sales at 50 675 units had increased by 3 318 units or 7.0 percent from the 47 357 vehicles sold in September last year. September 2017 export sales at 36 359 vehicles, had registered an improvement of 3 595 units or a gain of 11.0 percent compared to the 32 764 vehicles exported in September last year.

Overall, out of the total reported Industry sales of 50 675 vehicles, an estimated 40 654 units or 80.2 percent represented dealer sales, an estimated 13.9 percent represented sales to the vehicle rental Industry, 3.0 percent to government and 2.9 percent to Industry corporate fleets.

Domestic sales of industry new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and mini buses at 14 523 units during September 2017 reflected a gain of 1 520 vehicles, an improvement of 11.7 percent.