Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Vehicle sales in all segments registered surprisingly strong gains in the past month, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Aggregate industry domestic sales in September had improved by 12 539 units or 30% to reach 54 364 compared to the same month last year.
"Sales in all segments had registered surprisingly strong gains on the corresponding month last year," Naamsa said.
Sales in September last year had been severely depressed by stock shortages due to industry-wide strikes.
Total year-to-date domestic sales in 2011 remained 16.2% ahead of the corresponding 9 months in 2010.
September 2011 export sales at 25 933 vehicles registered an improvement of 13 399 units or 106.9% compared to the strike-affected total of 12 534 export units in September last year.
The September 2011 new car market again received support from strong demand by car rental companies, with the car rental industry accounting for 21.4% of total new car sales.
"In the event, more than one out of every five new cars sold during September 2011 represented a purchase by the car rental industry."
Naamsa said the strength of the new car market in September 2011 could be attributed to a number of factors, including ongoing improvement in the financial position of consumers on the back of relatively low interest rates, lower prices and aggressive marketing and sales incentive programmes.
Consumers would have been encouraged to bring forward planned purchases in the light of future price hike risks, as a result of the recent substantial depreciation in the rand exchange rate.
