New-vehicle sales in September increased for the fourth month in a row, improving by 7% on sales in the same month last year, to reach 50 675 units.

New-vehicle exports increased by 11% to 36 359 units.

Sales numbers released by the Department of Trade and Industry show that new passenger car sales grew by 5.9% to 33 669 units.

Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses, at 14 523 units, also showed positive momentum, gaining 11.7%.

New heavy truck and bus sales increased 0.6% to 1 791 units.

It was not all good news, however.

September sales of new medium trucks, at 692 units, dropped by 10.4% in the domestic market.

The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) believes that stagnating truck sale figures reflect “generally poor investment sentiment in the economy”.

Over the past four months, the domestic automotive industry held up well in a challenging economy, adds the association.

“A number of factors contributed to the improved momentum in local sales. These include reduced- new-vehicle pricing pressures currently at an annualised rate lower than inflation, the July reduction in interest rates and highly attractive sales incentives.

“Normally, sales during the second half of the year are higher than sales in the first half and an overall year-on-year [sales] improvement of around 1.5% for 2017 is likely.”

“The remarkable recovery in the new-vehicle market is being made possible by superlative marketing incentives from manufacturers,” echoes WesBank brand and communication head Rudolf Mahoney.

“Right now, new-vehicle deals are just that much more attractive than buying used, and consumers are seeing the value.”

Average deal values for new vehicles are in decline.

Compared with August, September’s average new-vehicle finance transaction value was 1.1% lower – a clear indication that manufacturers are giving much back to the consumer, to the extent that the average transaction value has declined.

Conversely, the supply of good-quality used vehicles is drying up, which has resulted in continued price inflation.

Used-vehicle finance deal values have risen 8.4% year-on-year and show no signs of slowing down, climbing 2.5% in the last three months.