Luxury cars for sale in Kenya. [Photo/Joe Muchiri Twitter]
Data from the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) shows that the local luxury car brands franchises experienced a 15 percent slump in the first nine months of the year.
This saw 190 luxury units sold as compared to last year which saw 224 units sold over the same period.
The performance mirrors the total new vehicle market which has experienced an 18.7 percent unit sales dip from 10,368 to 8,427 units over the period in consideration.
High-end car brand orders for Mercedes increased from 47 units to 50 units and BMW registered a significant increase from 16 units to 34 units in the review period.
Other car brands took a dip as units sold for Jaguar dropped from 27 to 16units and Land Rover from 74 to 56 units.
Sanjiv Shah, the chief executive of RMA Kenya which sells Land Rover and Jaguar cars reiterated that sales were down because of the capping of interest rates and the current political uncertainty.
Since the capping of interest rates in September 2016, banks are taking longer to approve financing for vehicles and have reduced the funding to 60 percent from the previous 90 percent of a car’s value.
Transport firm Multiple Group had a mixed bag of fortune as their Bentley dealership debut saw one Continental GT (coupé) and Two Bentleys –Bentayga (SUV) sold in September alone.
This as their Porsche dealership saw a dip in sales from 46 units last year to 26 units in the period of review.