According to Chris de Kock, executive head of sales and marketing at WesBank, these numbers include new sales figures for Mercedes and GWM, which were excluded on the NAAMSA report. "With all manufacturer sales included, total industry car sales in January 2012 were higher than expected. In fact, last month was also the strongest January recorded for new passenger car sales since 2007."
De Kock says this strong performance continues to be driven by ideal buying conditions for the consumer, such as the current low interest rate environment, combined with continued launches of new models in the marketplace supported by favourable offers by the manufacturers.
He says this positive growth was also reflected by WesBank book data, which recorded a 6.2% increase in credit applications in January 2012 to 98 000 compared with 92 284 recorded in the same period a year earlier.
"Looking forward we expect high-end single digit growth in 2012, which would still be a very good performance, given the strong sales achieved last year. However, with the supply side remaining under pressure and economic growth forecast in low, single digits, it will become increasingly difficult to sustain growth in new sales so far ahead of economic growth," concludes De Kock.
