The government published new regulations on 12 May with regards to car sales. According to the Government Gazette (see the download button below), a “car” refers to any vehicle designed or adapted for propulsion or haulage on a road by means of fuel, gas or electricity or any other means. This includes Passenger Cars (PCs), Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV), Medium Commercial Vehicles (MCV), Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCV), Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicles (XHCV), inclusive of buses, motorcycles, trailers, caravans, agricultural or any other implement designed or adapted to be drawn by such car.
Car sales will be handled in a phased approach. Phase one will allow dealerships to operate at 30% capacity, phase two at 60% capacity, and phase three at 100% capacity.
NAAMSA reported that a total of 22 200 passenger vehicles and 9 425 light commercial vehicles were sold during March 2020. Even though the year-to-date totals for 2020 is lower than the year-to-date totals for 2019, it still shows that the automotive market is crucial to the survival of the economy.
According to NAAMSA, the majority of vehicles sold during March 2020 belonged to the following brands:
- Volkswagen
- Toyota
- Hyundai
- Renault
- Ford
- Suzuki
- Mercedes-Benz/Smart
In April, there was a total of 105 passenger vehicles sold that belonged to the following brands:
- Ford
- Toyota
- Suzuki
- Haval
- Datsun
- Nissan
- Volvo
- Jaguar
Based on statistics from the Auto Mart website, we’ve seen a very similar interest in vehicles, with some of the most searched vehicles during the last two weeks being the VW Polo range, the Toyota Corolla, Yaris and Runx, the Hyundai i10, i20 and Getz, the Renault Sandero, Clio and Kwid, the Ford Fiesta and Focus, the Suzuki Jimny and Swift, and older models such as the Toyota Tazz, Toyota Cressida, Toyota Conquest, Ford Bantam, Ford Escort, Mazda 323, and the Nissan 1400.
The increase in demand for more affordable vehicles shows that consumers are planning on downgrading their vehicles in order to save money, both on payments and possibly fuel consumption.
During our recent surveys, we also saw that a lot of dealerships are planning on making changes to the stock they keep. They are considering offering vehicles at discounted prices in order to help consumers and boost sales.
Auto Mart has also seen a 26.18% increase in leads during the last 2 weeks, which clearly shows that consumers are ready to purchase and that the opening of vehicle sales in level 4 will definitely have a positive impact on the South African economy.
Since competition in the car sales industry will be tight, we would like to remind dealers that online marketing is now more important than ever. Making sure that people know about your dealership and its offerings/promotions is crucial, and Auto Mart is geared to help dealerships across South Africa with cost-effective online marketing solutions.
For more information, call 060 098 8897 or email norah@automart.co.za.
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