BUSES AND TRUCKS HIT HARD
Local sales of heavy vehicles on the skids
News that vehicle finance applications for cars and bakkies set an all-time record does little to lift the gloom
A "bloodbath" in the truck and bus market underlined another miserable month for local new-vehicle sales in November, WesBank analyst Rudolf Mahoney said on Thursday. Even the news that vehicle finance applications for cars and bakkies set an all-time record did little to lift the gloom. A suggestion by the National Association of Vehicle Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) that recent Reserve Bank indicators could herald the start of a market rebound in 2017, of up to 4%, received short shrift elsewhere. "I like their optimism and would really like to agree and say things will get better," said Standard Bank’s Nicholas Nkosi. "But I see nothing in those figures, or anywhere else, to make us change our view that, at the very best, the 2017 market will be flat. It will be another challenging year." Figures released on Thursday showed that in November, sales of new cars fell by 13.8% from the corresponding month in 2015, and sales of all new vehicles by 9.6%. Cars dropped from 32,882 to 28,3...
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