Car sales up despite pressure on wallets
THE COST of fuel (and living) in South Africa keeps on rising, but that’s not stopping us from buying new cars. According to aggregate sales data from the National Automobile Association of South Africa (NAAMSA), new vehicle sales were up 1.7% year-on-year with 51 866 units sold in October.
Looking at year-to-date sales, the industry remains on par with the corresponding time frame in 2017 with total sales only marginally lower by 0.5%.
So where are these new vehicles going? In the dealer channel, which accounted for 67.3% of all new vehicles sold in October, total unit sales were up by 0.1% year-on-year and 1.7% year-to-date.
The rental channel, making up 20.2% of total industry sales, increased year-on-year by 9.1% as it continues to prepare for the approaching festive season. From a year-to-date point of view, however, rentals are down by 1.5%.
“Earlier this year, we made a prediction that new vehicle sales would grow by a conservative 0.75% by the end of 2018. To date, new vehicle sales have tracked in line with our forecast,” says Ghana Msibi, WesBank Executive Head of Sales and Marketing. “Looking at WesBank’s application data, we were pleased to see a significant spike in finance applications in October which may be indicative of an increase in consumer appetite that could translate into growth in the coming months.”
Passenger and light commercial vehicles, which contributed 67.6% and 27.3% to the total market respectively, are down by 0.3% and 1.6% year-todate. Making up a relatively small 5.1% of the total industry, the combination of commercials including buses, medium, heavy and extra-heavy vehicles was up by 3.3%.
The Toyota Hilux was once again South Africa’s most popular vehicle for the month of October, continuing its legendary retail leadership. Similarly, Toyota’s total sales tally for the month – 13 342 units – is the highest on record for the year and reflects a market share of 25.7%.
According to Calvyn Hamman, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Toyota South Africa: “Despite obvious market detractors such as shrinking disposable income and volatile trading conditions, I am very proud of Toyota’s performance year-to-date. All credit has to go our dealer network and, of course, our loyal customer base. Thank you.”
Here are the five best-selling passenger vehicles in SA, based on October 2018 sales:
VW Polo Vivo - 3009 VW Polo - 2824 Toyota Corolla Quest - 1879 Toyota Yaris - 1729 Hyundai Grand i10 - 900
Here are the five best-selling commercial vehicles in SA, based on October 2018 sales:
Toyota Hilux - 3352 Ford Ranger - 2575 Nissan NP200 - 1879 Isuzu KB (now D-MAX) - 1636 Toyota Fortuner - 1178