With everything else seeming to be going up in South Africa; fuel, food and electricity, it seems like finally we are hearing of the drop of something, cars. And no it is not the drop in the price of cars but rather the number of cars being sold is falling. New vehicle sales fell by 17.5%, or 10 103 units, year-on-year in March to 47 778 units. This is a rather huge decline but not surprising as consumers are starting to feel the pressure and are finding it harder to purchase new vehicles due to financial constraints.

Many people no longer have the luxury of spending their disposable income on a new car due to the rising interest rates over the last couple of months which have resulted in vehicle financing being more expensive. Coupled with the rising energy, food and fuel costs, a new car is probably the last thought on many peoples minds right now.

On the other hand, one has to consider the pressure this is putting on the car manufacturers. Business can not be as good for them if people are not buying their product as much as they used to. This could see the decline of performance in the car manufacturing industry and may result in jobs being lost in the industry if the supply of the cars is much more than the demand.

The figures show that sales in the month of March for new cars stood at 27 724 units. In March last year, sales for the month were 36 038 units. This represents a drop of 23.1% or 8 314 units less. This is a rather large drop and a clear sign that people are not buying new cars as they used. One good thing to come out of this may see the current traffic problems in South Africa not being worsened by more and more cars on the roads.

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