New vehicle sales gain speed

Johannesburg - South Africa’s total new vehicle sales were up 18.9% year-on-year at 52 338 units in October, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Naamsa) said on Wednesday.

New passenger car sales were also up, boosted by the improvement in the financial position of consumers, partly due to the relatively low interest rate environment, Naamsa said.

“In addition, consumers would have been encouraged to bring forward planned purchases in light of expectations of future price increases as a result of recent rand depreciation,” it said.

Naamsa also said sales had exceeded expectations over the past few months and the new car market was expected to grow by between 16% and 18% this year in volume terms compared with 2010.