Charlen Raymond
Though it ended the month as South Africa’s best-selling sports car, the figures are bleak in comparison to what the pony car achieved since coming to market in December 2015.
Porsche and co.
German automaker Porsche had an ‘okay-month’ in which it sold 24 units of the 911 and 18 units of the 718 Cayman/Boxsters. These two vehicles were, respectively, the second and third best-selling vehicles for April. The Mustang and the two Porsche’s were the only sports cars to have double digit sale figures.
The Jaguar F-Type found nine new owners in fourth place, followed by the Ferrari 488 Spider in fifth and Audi R8 in sixth place – both sold three units.
Nissan’s GT-R found two new owners, followed by the 488 Spider’s hardtop sibling, the 488 GTB, in eighth place (one unit) and the Ferrari California in ninth – also one new owner.
Commenting on the month’s sales figures Naamsa (National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA) said: “Following the modest improvement in new vehicle sales experienced during the first three months of 2017, the outlook for the balance of the year had turned negative on the back of the extra-ordinary political events at the end of March 2017 and early April 2017.
“Political and social polarisation in SA – together with prospects of lower domestic growth over the short to medium term – continued to weigh on business confidence and consumer sentiment. Domestic new vehicle sales were closely correlated with the overall performance of South Africa’s economy and confidence levels.”
Naamsa says it anticipated that greater clarity would be forthcoming over the next two to three months regarding the impact of socio-political events on the direction of the economy and this would enable then the Association to resume projections on new vehicle sales. At this stage, the risk for new vehicle sales was on the downside.
[“source-wheels24”]