The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) has released its figures for March, with car rental companies contributing heavily to the rise in aggregate new vehicle sales. New car sales for the month, compared with year-on-year numbers from 2009, revealed a significant increase of 20.1 per cent, while the figure also represented a rise from February numbers by 9.1 per cent.

The results are a welcome return to normalcy for the industry which suffered greatly in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn which forced many motorists and holidaymakers away from buying or renting vehicles.

The NAAMSA said that the rebound in sales was evidence of a global trend towards a post-recession recovery. The news came in the same week as Toyota, Ford and GM all reported massive turnarounds in the first three months of 2010, while the international hire network continues to return slowly to pre-recession levels.

The NAAMSA called 2010 one of the best calendar year beginnings on record, with statistics showing that new vehicle sales were 18.7 per cent ahead of the corresponding period in 2009.

There were 38,293 vehicles sold last month in South Africa, with the majority (84 per cent) being to retailers and dealerships. The car rental industry contributed a healthy 7 per cent to total sales, while government sales were at 4 per cent as were sales to industry corporate fleets.

The truck sector also performed well last month, with medium and heavy truck sales being up by 12.5 per cent, with sales of 757 and 1402 respectively. NAAMSA also said that the forthcoming FIFA World Cup would further boost the domestic market, particularly in rental figures, and that the outlook for the remainder of 2010 was positive.