Very strong new vehicle sales for January have provided further evidence that there is positive momentum in the market at present, according to the CEO of the McCarthy Motor Group, Brand Pretorius.
“Total sales of 45 114 units in January was, in fact, higher than for any single month in 2010, which is very encouraging, particularly when one considers that it was midway through the month before the business world was functioning at normal pace after the holiday break,” explained Pretorius.
“The overall market figure showed an 18.5% improvement over January 2010, with cars up 22.1%, light commercials increasing by 7.7%, medium commercials, which have been fairly slow in recent months, were up by 34.9%, while sales of heavy trucks and bus increased by 19%, making for a healthy picture, with cars continuing to outperform most of the commercial vehicle sectors.
“Light commercial vehicle sales, in particular, are affected negatively by the slowdown in infrastructure spending as well as the relatively low levels of activity in manufacturing.
“We again experienced a healthy demand from both private and fleet customers, driven primarily by improved sentiment about the future and strong replacement demand triggered by the average age of the national vehicle population of almost 11 years.
“Even sales into the car rental sector at 3 815 units were surprisingly high. This equated to 14.3% of passenger car sales reported to NAAMSA, compared to a norm of about 10%,” added the McCarthy CEO.
“There is no doubt that the enhanced affordability of new cars is the key driver of the significant growth we are seeing. The affordability picture is looking a lot better because of the modest new vehicle price inflation, low interest rates and extended repayment periods on instalment sales,” concluded Brand Pretorius.
STORY COURTESY OF WILKEN COMMUNICATIONS
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