A huge leap in demand for rental cars going into the summer tourist market helped new vehicle sales in New Zealand last month become the strongest October on record.
Sales totaled 12,684 units, made up of 9636 passenger cars and 3048 light commercials. Rentals – cars and commercials – accounted for 2955 of those, a whopping 212 per cent up on the monthly average among the top 15 suppliers until October 1 of around 946 rentals a month.
Sales at the end of October totalled 112,217 new vehicles, 5.5 per cent and 5825 units up on 106,446 for the same period last year, says the Motor Industry Association (MIA). Light commercials in October were down slightly on the same month last year, but numbers for the 10 months of 2015 were up 1687 units (5.5 per cent) on the same period in 2014.
“Registrations of new vehicles have averaged a staggering 11,237 a month year to date, and if this pace continues the industry will smash last year’s record sales of 127,352 by about 7000 units,” said MIA chief executive David Crawford.
Toyota continued to be the big player in the hire car market with 1942 sales, or 66 per cent of the 2955 sold in October. Its numbers were made up of the Corolla (1087), Highlander (339), Yaris (268) and RAV4 (248). The next two best selling rentals after the RAV4 last month were Mazda3 (141) and Mazda6 (125).
The Toyota Corolla continues to be the country’s best selling new car. It sold 1334 last month, of which its 1087 rentals represented 81.4 per cent. In 10 months this year, Toyota has sold 2696 Corolla rentals – exactly 50 per cent of total Corolla sales of 5392 units.
At the end of October Toyota had sold 21,492 new passenger vehicles, of which 6459 were rentals. Therefore, with almost two months of the year left, rentals have accounted for 30 per cent of Toyota sales in 2015.
But Toyota’s rental ratio isn’t the highest – that belongs to Holden with 32 per cent. Holden had sold 5713 passenger cars at the end of October, of which 1823 were rentals, made up of Commodore (860), Captiva (388), Trax (329), Barina (246).
Among the other top 15 suppliers, Mitsubishi’s rental ratio is 26 per cent of all sales, followed by Mazda’s 22 per cent. At the other end of the scale is Nissan with 3.8 per cent and Hyundai with 3.9 per cent.
Total rental sales at the end of October were 13,220, or 11.7 per cent of the overall 112,217 new vehicles. Those nameplates outside the top 15 rental suppliers included:
Ssangyong Korando (219), Ford Ranger (213), Mitsubishi Outlander (213), Hyundai Santa Fe (194), Mazda6 (180), Ssangyong Tivoli (154), Holden Malibu (149), Nissan Qashqai (136), Holden Cruze (116), Toyota Hilux (110), Ford Falcon (109), Toyota Previa (107), Ford Mondeo (103), Fiat Ducato (96), Ford Ecosport (80), Hyundai Tucson (77), Ford Kuga (71), Ford Transit (71), Hyundai i30 (70), Mitsubishi Pajero (70), Toyota Camry (70), Mitsubishi Mirage (60), Mazda CX-5 (57), Fiat Punto (50), Nissan Pulsar (40), Hyundai iMax (33), Fiat 500 (32), Volvo XC60 (30), Volkswagen Golf (28), Toyota Aurion (25), Ssangyong Rexton (24) Mini Hatchback (24), LDV V80 (22), Peugeot 308 (21), Suzuki Swift (21), BMW 116i (20), BMW 320D (20), Volkswagen Polo (20).