The two car brands that registered the most new passenger vehicles to themselves and/or their dealers at the end of July in New Zealand were Ford and BMW, data shows. It doesn’t include commercial vehicles.
Fifty out of every 100 new passenger Fords listed in the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) books were either registered as head office property or demonstrators. BMW registered 43 of every 100 as demonstrators.
The numbers continue to blur the lines between cars that have actually been sold to an end user – Joe Public, in other words – and those unsold but pre-registered with the NZTA by the distributor and/or its dealers.
In Ford’s case, 816 of the 1636 new vehicles registered year-to-date (YTD) either went to head office (477) or to dealers as demonstrators (339). The remaining 820, or 50 per cent, were listed as “real sales.”
NZTA had 878 new BMW passenger cars on its books at the end of July, but records show 379 (43 per cent) were pre-registered – four to its head office and 375 as dealer demonstrators. That left 499 BMWs, or 57 per cent, as “real sales.”
Next on the scale of pre-registrations were Mercedes-Benz (39 per cent) and Skoda (38 per cent). NZTA had logged 1134 new Benz models, 443 of which were pre-registered to either head office (47) or dealers (396). “Real sales” were 691, or 61 per cent.
NZTA-registered Skodas totalled 674, of which 259 were pre-registered, 79 to head office and 180 as demonstrators. That left 415 (62 per cent) as “real sales.”
The brand with the best “real sales” ratio was Honda (94 per cent), followed by Kia (90 per cent). Here’s the breakdown of the 16 brands with the most NZTA registrations at the end of July. As a guide, Toyota therefore had 12 per cent demos/head office, Kia 10 per cent, Mazda 16 per cent … and so on.
Toyota – 6619 regos: 659 demos, 106 head office, 5854 real sales = 88 per cent
Kia – 4177 regos: 390 demos, 42 head office, 3745 real sales = 90 per cent
Mazda – 3212 regos: 497 demos, 10 head office, 2706 real sales = 84 per cent
Mitsubishi – 3172 regos: 330 demos, 236 head office, 2606 real sales = 82 per cent
Suzuki – 3144 regos: 412 demos, 115 head office, 2617 real sales = 83 per cent
Hyundai – 2910 regos: 468 demos, 489 head office, 1953 real sales = 67 per cent
Holden – 2654 regos: 428 demos, 120 head office, 2097 real sales = 79 per cent
Nissan – 2193 regos: 344 demos, 57 head office, 1792 real sales = 82 per cent
Honda – 2017 regos: 23 demos, 93 head office, 1901 real sales = 94 per cent
Volkswagen – 1682 regos: 462 demos, 65 head office, 1155 real sales = 69 per cent
Ford – 1636 regos: 339 demos, 477 head office, 820 real sales = 50 per cent
Subaru – 1451 regos: 380 demos, 29 head office, 1042 real sales – 72 per cent
Mercedes-Benz – 1134 regos: 396 demos, 47 head office, 691 real sales = 61 per cent
BMW – 878 regos: 375 demos, 4 head office, 499 real sales = 57 per cent
Audi – 813 regos: 234 demos, 2 head office, 577 real sales = 71 per cent
Skoda – 674 regos: 180 demos, 79 head office, 415 real sales = 62 per cent
The data shows YTD overall real sales at 78 per cent and demo/head office registrations at 22 per cent.