Fairland, South Africa -- (SBWire) -- 01/27/2013 --Get useful advice from WesBank – South Africa’s leading asset-based financial solutions provider about the rise in vehicle sales during December 2012.

The 2012 year ended better than expected in the car sales arena, with total new vehicle sales growth at nearly double digits. December 2012 ended with a marginal increase in new vehicles sales, according to figures released today by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA).

Chris De Kock, Executive Head of Sales and Marketing at WesBank, South Africa’s leading asset-based financial solutions provider, says the final growth for 2012 has proven to be very strong. “The prospect of higher new vehicle prices in the new year, following a period of very low vehicle inflation environment over the past three years, helped to maintain consumer demand into the latter part of the year.

“In fact, the market has been surprisingly strong throughout much of 2012, with plenty of demand among consumers for new vehicles evident by the increase in finance applications recorded by WesBank, which increased by 17% from 1.03 million in 2011 to 1.21 million in 2012. Factors which also contributed to the strong demand included on-going incentives currently being provided by manufacturers, such as discounts and trade-in incentives, as well as interest rates remaining at a 40-year low.”

De Kock says that WesBank internal data has also revealed some significant trends, for example the fact that the average transaction value for new cars has increased by 7% from December 2011, with a corresponding increase of 13% in used car sales in the same period.

“We’ve also seen the replacement cycle come down by 12% on new cars, from 41.72 months as at December 2011 down to 36.72 months. When we look at the replacement cycle for used cars, it’s reduced by 7%, from 33.47 months in December 2011 to 31.23 last month,” says De Kock.

“Full year 2012 the market is up 9.2% compared to 2011, with passenger vehicle sales performing much better than expected - they increased by 11.3%, while LCVs had a subdued year, growing only by 4.6%. While this is a slight retraction from the high of 11.6% in July, it is still a very strong performance, given the financial pressures that continue to negatively impact on many consumers, and ultimately the performance was better than many expected at the start of the year,” concludes De Kock.

About Wesbank
WesBank has over 40 years of experience in asset and vehicle finance. As a leading asset-based finance provider in South Africa, we finance new and used vehicles for personal use, both privately and through dealerships, as well as leisure vehicles, and also offer expert advice and professional service to our clients.

Our other main focus is providing quality asset finance and fleet management solutions for a number of market sectors. WesBank’s asset finance services cover aviation finance, agri finance, commercial vehicle finance, company vehicles, plant equipment, office equipment, public sector finance and franchise finance. In addition, we offer personal insurance, vehicle insurance, personal loans as well as business insurance, and we are perfectly placed to structure a finance deal to suit your needs.

WesBank is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, which in turn, is part of the FirstRand Group. FirstRand is South Africa's most innovative Bank Assurance Group with interests in Retail and Merchant Banking, Life Assurance, Financial Planning and Medical Schemes.