The strike action during September severely damaged South Africa’s status as a reliable supplier to international export markets and could well negatively affect future export contracts being awarded to South African automotive manufacturers.

However, despite labour disputes,low GDP growth and exchange rate volatility suppressing the efforts to increase vehicle sales, there were some positive signals.

After four years of growth in the domestic market, aggregate sales continued to reflect modest growth on a year to date basis which showed an improvement of 5.0% compared to the corresponding nine months of 2012.

In addition, sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the Industry – largely unaffected by strike action recorded an increase of 108 units or 13.9% in the case of medium commercial vehicles, and an increase of 46 units or 3.0% in the case of heavy trucks and buses compared to the corresponding month last year.

Overall, out of the total reported Industry sales of 54 281 vehicles, 42 408 units or 78.1% represented dealer sales, 15.3% represented sales to the vehicle rental Industry, 3.6% to Industry corporate fleets and 3.0% to government.

Going forward, it is going to be extremely difficult, for manufacturers to make up for all of the loss in vehicle and component output. However, they are expected to put into place action plans to make up for some of the lost production and to enable the Industry to supply the needs of customers in highly competitive international markets.

Bellow is a South African new car sales summary for September 2013, which includes stats on the top 5 Passenger and Light Commercial Vehicles, as well as export figures.

South African new car sales summary for September 2013

Total new vehicle sales: Total Industry sales of 54 281 units for September 2013 reflected a decline of 1.5% or 812 vehicles from the 55 093 units sold in September last year.Total export sales: Due to the prolonged automotive strike action, new vehicle exports during September 2013 registered a substantial decline of 20 024 units or a fall of 75.1% compared to the 26 646 vehicles exported in September last year.A total of 39 792 new cars were sold in September 2013, which represented a marginal improvement of 303 units or small gain of 0.8% compared to the 39 489 new cars sold in September last year.Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) including bakkies, and mini busses buses at 12 014 units during September 2013 reflected a decline of 1269 units or -9.6% compared to the 13 283 light commercial vehicles sold during the corresponding month last year.

South Africa’s best-selling car brands for September 2013

Top 5 selling new cars

Top 5 Selling Passenger Vehicles

Top 5 Selling Light Commercial Vehicles