New car sales spark flicker of hope

According to figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa), June marked the second best sales month this year after March.

Taken in context of the year-to-date slump in sales of 33.8%, the 22.6% drop in sales in June 2009 over the same month last year is encouraging.

“Manufacturers and distributors are pleased to have moved 4172 more vehicles last month than in May and a substantial 6841 more vehicles than in April,” says vice president sales and marketing, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa, Jacques Brent.

“The overall market has returned to the levels experienced in the first quarter, although quarter two was marred by poor April and May sales results.”

The first half of the year ended 33.8% down on the first six months of last year with 190,245 sales recorded so far this year as opposed to the 287,456 sold during the same period in 2008.

In spite of the slight lift in sales the market remains gloomy, he said.

Compared to June 2008, passenger cars remained the least affected, declining 17.5%, while light commercial vehicles (LCVs) recovered slightly to record a decline of 25.1% during June.

Passenger and LCVs showed a 12.9% and an 18.4% increase respectively over May 2009, however. Medium, heavy, and extra heavy commercial vehicles showed 53.7%, 45.3%, and 60.2% declines respectively over the same period last year.

Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (FMCSA) again claimed the number two spot in dealer volumes behind Toyota. Bantam accounted for the most of Ford's volume, allowing their LCV sales to increase 3.2% over last month.

Fiesta remained the company's best-selling passenger car, while BT-50 and S40 commanded the largest share of Mazda and Volvo sales respectively.

The top selling new passenger cars in June were:

• Toyota Corolla - 1301
  
• Mercedes-Benz C-Class - 1132
  
• VW Polo - 1105
  
• BMW 3-Series - 1028
  
• VW CitiGolf - 1020
  
• Chevrolet Aveo - 740
  
• Ford Fiesta - 648
  
• Toyota Fortuner - 599
  
• Chevrolet Spark - 546
  
• VW Polo Classic - 465

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