Registrations of new vehicles in New Zealand have averaged just over 11,500 a month so far in 2016 – up almost 500 vehicles a month on the all-time record year in 2015, according to Motor Industry Association figures (MIA).
At the end of June, 69,057 new vehicles – passenger cars, light commercials and trucks – had been registered, compared to the 65,653 for the same six-month period last year. That’s growth so far in 2016 of more than 5 per cent over 2015.
June itself was the strongest June since 1982. The 13,699 registrations were also the second-highest monthly total since records began in 1975, sitting in behind the 13,983 new vehicles registered in July 1984.
That was when New Zealanders spent up large before the incoming Labour Government’s finance minister Roger Douglas devalued a considerably overvalued NZ dollar. History buffs will remember it as a constitutional crisis. At the centre of it was intractable Prime Minister Rob Muldoon (at top).
MIA chief executive David Crawford said record light commercial sales last month showed how buyers took to the special deals on offer at the annual Fieldays event in the Waikato.
“The 4513 commercial vehicle registrations were the highest June on record and only the third time more than 4000 commercial vehicles have been sold in a month,” he said.
“The previous two times were also in June and off the back of Fieldays – 4002 registrations in 2014 and 4009 in 2015.” He said other drivers of sales were record levels of immigration, a heathy trade sector and strong business confidence.
Toyota remains the sales leader, with a 17 per cent share (1569) of the 9186 passenger cars sold in June and 24 per cent (1097) of the 4513 commericals. Ford was second with an overall 1478 units and Holden third with 1274.
The two most popular vehicles in NZ are the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux utes. At the end of June, 4000 Rangers and 3263 Hiluxes had been registered, whereas the two top passenger cars were the Toyota Corolla (2078) and Toyota RAV4 (1636).
SUVs accounted for 36 per cent of registrations in June followed by utes with 25 per cent share. The top three passenger cars in June were SUVs – Toyota Highlander, Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage.
