Data released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) on Friday showed that car sales last month had not suffered from "World Cup fever".

Vehicle financing group WesBank said new car sales continued to support the South African motor industry's clean bill of health for this year."Despite our expectation of a marginal drop in sales activity during June as a result of the World Cup excitement, we are pleasantly surprised by Naamsa's reported sales figures for June," said Chris de Kock, the executive head of sales and marketing. Last month, the industry sold a total of 39 929 units to South African buyers, up 2 percent on May and a significant 21 percent rise on the corresponding month last year. "Digging slightly deeper into the numbers, it is revealed that passenger vehicles had a strong month, with sales up by 4.2 percent when compared to May 2010, and by 25.8 percent when compared to June 2009," said De Kock.

This brought the passenger vehicle market to a growth level of 27.9 percent on a year-to-date basis. De Kock said WesBank had also seen a healthy 16 percent increase in the rate of applications received per selling day, compared with June last year. WesBank's new-to-used ratio further supported the increase in demand for new vehicles. Its new-to-used ratio, which reached a level of 2.3 used cars for every new car financed in November last year, has now pulled back significantly to a level of 1.6 used cars for every new car. Despite there having been a decline in debt servicing cost, household debt levels remained high with the average consumer finding it difficult to reduce their debt and thereby improving the overall health of their personal balance sheet. "We believe that the second half of 2010 will continue to see a reduction in the rate of sales growth for new vehicles, but that the overall picture will remain positive," said De Kock.