{"id":125435,"date":"2016-06-02T12:27:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T10:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=125435"},"modified":"2016-06-02T12:28:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T10:28:53","slug":"new-vs-used-car-sales-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/125435\/new-vs-used-car-sales-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New vs used car sales in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s new vehicle market continued to decline in May, with total industry sales of only 42,907 new vehicles sold, down 10.3% from 2015 data, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa).<\/p>\n

Naamsa noted declines of 12.9% and 5.3% for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, respectively.<\/p>\n

Passenger vehicles declined to 27,143 in May 2016, from 31,161 over the same period in 2015.<\/p>\n

According to WesBank, sales through the rental channel have started to normalise, after seeing significant growth during the first months of 2016.<\/p>\n

Rental sales in May were down 5.9%, however this channel\u2019s year-to-date growth is still at a healthy 48.7%.<\/p>\n

New vehicle sales through the dealer channel remained relatively robust, ending the month at 2.5% down on the same period last year. This was largely as a result of pent-up demand for new arrivals in the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segment.<\/p>\n

LCV sales through the dealer channel grew 15.4%, year-on-year, the financial services firm said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew model introductions by OEMs are helping to boost sales in an otherwise weak market, which has seen a definite shift to the pre-owned space,” said Simphiwe Nghona, CEO of WesBank Motor Retail.<\/p>\n

WesBank said its own data reflects the performance in the dealer channel. Consumer demand for credit remains robust, with new vehicle sales applications down by only 0.2% in May. However, the continued shift to the used market is evident.<\/p>\n

Wesbank data showed that application volumes for new vehicles amounted to 38,343<\/strong>, versus 89,390<\/strong> for used vehicles.<\/p>\n

Vehicle sales by channel:<\/p>\n