Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the pressure on consumers’ disposable income, CMH’s results suggest that while there may have been some rummaging around down the back of sofas to find a missing coin or two, it didn’t stop the person in the street from popping out to upgrade the wheels. CMH has bounced back from a tough period early in the pandemic with a cracking set of results, with new vehicle unit sales up 25% contributing to record headline earnings.

This was achieved despite all the headwinds of new waves of Covid, the civil unrest in July, interest rates and fuel prices flying, constant load-shedding and the floods in KwaZulu-Natal. These left  a dealership literally under water, closed the Toyota factory for an estimated 12 weeks and plunged Durban port into fair-to-middling chaos. ..