Five months into the year, and no one seems any the wiser about what will happen to the new-vehicle market in 2017. Figures released by the Department of Trade and Industry on Thursday showed the market contracted again in May: new-vehicle sales fell 2.6% from May 2016 to 41,783. Cars shed 2.5% to 26,317. Sales of commercial vehicles were also down. As a result, aggregate sales for the first five months of the year were 1.7% weaker than in 2016, slipping to 124,454. Cars fell 2.3% to 147,924. The good news is that the decline was much slower than in April, when the market plummeted to 34,978, the lowest monthly figure in more than seven years. But analysts and industry executives are split on sales over the rest of the year. Standard Bank’s Nicholas Nkosi suggested that the full-year market would shrink up to 2%. "I think what we have seen so far is an indicator of what will continue to happen," he said. "I see nothing changing." WesBank’s Rudolf Mahoney said: "There’s too much unce...
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