New-vehicle sales in October declined by 8.6%, to 54 244 units, compared with the same month last year, continuing the downward trend evident in the last number of months.
New-vehicle sales had dropped by 9% in September, 8.2% in August, 6.1% in July and 4.8% in June.
Sales numbers released by the Department of Trade and Industry showed that new passenger car sales declined by 10.9% in October, to 36 175 units.
Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses, at 15 171 units, fell by 4.1%, while sales of medium trucks, at 1 064 units, jumped by 11.2%.
New heavy truck and bus sales declined by 6.1%, to 1 834 units.
Vehicle exports, which have thus far maintained positive momentum, dropped by 13.9% to 27 732 units.
Export numbers were muted, owing to the production ramp-up at the Pretoria plant of the new Ford Ranger, which has just been launched, comments the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa).
“Significant Ford export numbers are expected to materialise over the next few months.”
However, warns Naamsa, “vehicle exports reported by various other manufacturers have also registered declines, which suggest the advent of a possible slowdown in global markets”.