Is the car-market pendulum swinging away from used vehicles and back to new? Sales of used cars have accelerated rapidly this year as above-inflation price increases on new ones have made them increasingly unaffordable to buyers. From a former state of parity, used sales now heavily outnumber new. But now vehicle finance specialist WesBank says slowing prices and improved consumer sentiment shows signs of pushing buyers the other way. Analyst Rudolf Mahoney said finance applications for new cars grew 9.7% in August, compared to a year earlier. Used applications were up 2.2%. He said the changes were reflected in three-month trends, from June to August. Tellingly, the average new-car finance deal in August increased by only 1.6% from a year earlier. This time in 2016, the year-on-year increase from 2015 was nearly 10%. Used prices last month were 8.4% higher. However, Simphiwe Nghona, group head of Standard Bank Vehicle and Asset Finance, said it was too soon to draw conclusions. He ...
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