The South African new vehiclesales data for April 2017 has been released:It's not a great time to be a new car salesman with the market showing a severe decline, both in sales and export data.

New vehicle sales for the month of April declined some 13.4% from the same period last year. Exports also decreased by 25.5% over the equivalent period during 2016. Most of the export drop can be attributed to the public holidays that occurred in April, where in 2016, most of the public holidays were in March.

All of the new vehicle sectors showed double-digitdeclines with passenger cars being the worst hit at 13.7% worse off than April 2016. Other factors that contributed to the decline include local business sentiment, political instability and the recently acquired junk status.

In terms of SA's top selling models, the Ford Ranger pipped the Toyota Hilux to the top spot on the sales chart. The evergreen VW Polo Vivo and Polo models showed good numbers again wrapping up third and fourth spot respectively.

New car sales summary for April 2017

Aggregate new car sales of 34 956 down by 13.4% (-5 392 units) compared with April 2016

New passenger vehicle sales of 22 452 down by 13.7% (-3 560 units) compared to April 2016

Light commercial vehicle sales of 10 592 down by 13.3% (-1 625 units) compared to April 2016

Export sales of 24 449 down by 25.5% (+8 383 units) compared to April 2016

Top selling car brands in SA for April 2017

Top selling new cars in SA for April 2017

New car sales outlook

At the beginning of the year, the new car sales outlook appeared positive, 4 months down the line things are vastly different. Naamsa reports that the balance of this year now appears negative for sales growth. Naamsa puts this down to extra-ordinary political events at the end of March 2017.

"Naamsa anticipated that greater clarity would be forthcoming over the next two to three months regarding the impact of socio-political events on the direction of the economy and this would enable then the Association to resume projections on new vehicle sales."

It doeshowever,expect exports to remain positive as global growth continues. "Indications for the global economy were reasonably positive with the latest IMF projections anticipating global growth at around 3.6%. This would benefit vehicle exports to Europe, Australasia, Asia, the United States and South America. NAAMSA anticipated that export sales would register upward momentum over the balance of 2017 thereby continuing to contribute positively to South Africa’s trade balance."

Related content:

New Car Sales Summary for 2016

2016’s New Cars – How They Fare in Terms of Sales

5 Most Memorable Drives of 2016

Cars Coming to SA in 2017

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