Johannesburg - South Africa's total new vehicle sales
increased by 20.7% year-on-year to 50 228 units in May, the National
Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Naamsa) said on Monday.
Naamsa said new car sales saw the highest daily selling rate
in over four years as new models came into the market, while exports rose by
2.5% compared to May last year.
The sharp drop in the rand is likely to see consumers bring
forward decisions to buy a new car as the weaker currency makes imports more
expensive. The same happened in September when the rand dropped to the R8
level.
The rand was at R8.58 against the dollar on Monday, recovering slightly from a three-year low of R8.71 hit on Friday.