Pressure shows as new vehicle sales slide in October

The downturn in the country’s new vehicle sales continued in October with another monthly decrease. albeit not as hefty as in September.

Month of swapping

In an unchanged top four, the Toyota Hilux came out top with sales of 3 310, followed by the Volkswagen Polo Vivo on 2 280, its Durban-made stablemate, the Corolla Cross on 2 100, and its arch-rival, the Ford Ranger on 1 853.

ALSO READ: Hilux leads Vivo and Ranger in tanking September new car sales

Swapping places with the Isuzu D-Max for fifth and sixth places, the Toyota HiAce raked-in sales of 1 546 versus the former’s 1 464, while the Toyota Starlet replaced the Suzuki Swift in seventh place as the country’s best-selling non-locally made product with sales of 1 363 compared to 1 248.

Also staying steady, the Volkswagen Polo finished ninth on 1 235 with the outgoing Nissan NP200 completing the Top 10 with sales of 961 units.

Finer details

In a largely mixed picture, the figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) showed a 2% overall decrease from October 2022’s 46 350 to this year’s 45 445.

Out of the respective five segments, two ended on a towards trajectory, namely passenger vehicles by 3.5% from 30 980 to 29 912, and light commercial vehicles by 3% from 12 748 to 12 361.

Ending the month in the black though, medium-duty commercial vehicles recorded an uptake of 8.3% from 745 to 807 units, while heavy-duty commercial vehicles posted a substantial hike of 26% from last year’s 1 877 to this year’s 2 365.

After slumping by almost 30% in September, new vehicle exports headed the other way in October with a 39.5% increase from October for a total of 40 302 versus 28 891.

“Economic constrains continued to impact new vehicle sales during the month as rising cost of living and restrictive borrowing costs were depressing demand for luxury goods,” Naamsa said.

“The country’s weak economic growth rate, although still marginally positive, remains a key challenge for the new vehicle market going forward in view of the close correlation between new vehicle sales and the GDP growth rate.

“Alongside faster economic growth, moderate inflation and lower interest rates would go a long way to support the new vehicle market over the medium term,” the association concluded.

Top 10 musical chairs

Out of the country’s best-selling brands, only the top three kept station with Toyota placing first on 12 440 ahead of Volkswagen (6 595) and Suzuki (4 480).

In another reversal, Hyundai traded places with Ford to finish fourth on 2 638 compared to the Blue Oval’s 2 318.

Staying sixth, Nissan finished the month on 2 178 ahead of Isuzu on 1 848, with Renault retaking eighth place from Kia with sales of 1 606 versus 1 417. Finally, Haval dropped back to 10th position with a total of 1 389 units sold.

October Top 50 Best Selling Cars

NOW READ: Ford scores biggest as new vehicle sales dive in August