South African dealers were much more positive about the outlook for the new vehicle market than in January this year.

Vehicle financier Wesbank's tenth vehicle sales confidence indicator, released on Tuesday, showed that dealer confidence in April grew to 5,8 out of ten, the highest level since its inception in 2007. Market confidence among dealers polled stood at 5,5 in January this year, up from the low point of 4,2 recorded in April 2009.

Wesbank sales and marketing executive head Chris de Kock noted that dealers had indicated that their sentiments were driven by the fact that credit was now much more readily available than during the recession.

He added that Wesbank's repossession levels were down from a peak of more than 2 000 cars a month as recorded in mid-2009, to just over a thousand in April, this despite 45,3% of the 15-million people with credit records in South Africa suffering from impaired records by December 2009, up from 37,5% in June 2008.

The ease on repossessions followed a tightening in the scorecard on which potential customers were awarded credit, a general drop-off in job losses, as well as a successful debt review process, which allowed owners to reschedule their vehicle repayments.

Sales were currently more influenced by the availability of stock than frugal bankers.

De Kock added that the local vehicle market had seen an abnormally high jump in sales at the beginning of the year, owing largely to rental companies stocking up for the FIFA World Cup, which was due to kick off next month.

"We expect to see the remainder of the year to be more subdued. However, we still expect to see the market grow by 13% this year, which is a material recovery on last year."

De Kock said he expected it to be business as usual during the FIFA World Cup, as German sales figures during the previous FIFA World Cup held in this European country in 2006 had indicated that sales had dipped only slightly in August, and then trended back to normal in September.

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