Record number of vehicles sold

NAMIBIANS bought more new vehicles last month than in any December before, revving up total sales for 2011 to over 12 000.

Driving the record sales was strong light commercial vehicles, which tallied 703 for December – the second highest number of sales since the series started in 1997, Simonis Storm Securities (SSS) said yesterday.SSS researcher Rudolph Kuschke said 12 409 new vehicles were sold in Namibia last year. This is 9,7 per cent more than the 11 313 sold in 2010.New passenger vehicle sales in 2011 rose by 10,7 per cent compared to the previous year, clocking at 5 322.Volkswagen was the market leader in passenger cars, claiming 29 per cent of all new cars sold. Toyota came in second, with 22 per cent of the pie. Ford and Chevrolet enjoyed nine and eight per cent of the market share respectively, Kuschke said.A total of 7 087 new commercial vehicles were sold last year, nearly nine per cent more than in 2010.’This is the first time that more than 7 000 units have been sold in a 12-month period,’ Kuschke said.Toyota reigned in the light commercial vehicle category, claiming 49 per cent of the market in 2011. Nissan ended second with 12 per cent, while Chevrolet and Isuzu each had 11per cent of the market share.Kuschke said new vehicle sales continued on its strong upward trend in the month of December, with a total number of 1 177 units being sold. ‘This is the highest number of vehicles sales ever recorded for this month, with December usually seeing lower sales as a result of people deferring their purchases to the new year,’ he said.’Although the number was slightly lower than the all-time high of November, it was still 25 per cent higher on a year-on-year basis.’Passenger vehicles sales dropped by 13,2 per cent to 429 compared to November. On an annual basis, however, it was 7,8 per cent higher. Kuschke said heavy commercial vehicles were much slower with only 24 units being sold in December.

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