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Johannesburg - The number of blacks buying vehicles doubled in the past five years, making up 34% of South Africa's largest vehicle lender Wesbank's book from 17% in 2003, Wesbank said on Wednesday.
"The black market is the one significant growth area. [Last year] this demographic was 15% up year-on-year in a declining market," said Wesbank's head of marketing and sales Chris de Kock.
He added that the trend signified that black middle-class consumers or the so-called black diamonds were propping up the rest of the market.
If the black market had stayed stagnant at 2004 levels, "the overall market would have increased negligibly in 2006 and declined by close to 25% in 2007," he said.
Vehicle sales fell 5.2% last year to 612 707 units from a peak of 646 566 units in 2006, as higher interest rates and tougher credit laws eat into consumers' pockets.
- I-Net Bridge