How much Ford NZ is dependent upon the Ranger ute (above) to maintain its second place so far this year on the new vehicle sales charts is shown in the latest registration figures from the Motor Industry Association (MIA).
After four months of 2017, there were 5677 Ford passenger cars and commercials on the NZ Transport Agency’s books. Of those, 2912 – or 51 per cent – were Rangers. Add 251 Transit vans and 56 per cent of Ford’s year-to-date sales were commercials.
After Ford came Nissan with a 41.5 per cent dependency on Navara – 1173 of an overall 2822 new vehicles.
Compare Ford’s and Nissan’s numbers with those of the other mainstream companies that make cars and utes: Toyota, Holden, Mazda, Mitsubishi.
Mitsubishi’s Triton accounted for 1165 – 33.5 per cent – of its 3471 sales. Holden’s 1400 Colorados represented 29.4 per cent of its 4751 new vehicles.
Toyota Hilux was at 28 per cent – 2289 units out of 8156. Add 972 HiAce vans to the Hilux total and 40 per cent of Toyota’s numbers were commercials.
Mazda’s BT-50 accounted for 658 units – 17.2 per cent – of its 3805 sales. The BT-50 trails the Isuzu D-Max (783) in 2017 by 125 units.
The Ranger is far and away the best selling new vehicle in NZ and has been for the past few years. But it and the Transit van are the only Fords in the MIA’s top 15 lists. Ford doesn’t have a passenger car in the top 15.
Ford sold 698 Rangers in April, ahead of the 571 Hiluxes moved by Toyota. The two utes regularly top the sales charts. In April, the No.1 Mazda CX-5 (264) and No.2 Kia Sportage (250) passenger cars together fell 57 units short of Hilux and 184 of Ranger.
Of the 15,667 commercial vehicles registered at the end of April, 10,811 – or 69 per cent – were either 4×4 or 4×2 utes. Vans like the Toyota Hiace, Hyundai ILoad, Ford Transit, Fiat Ducato, LDV V80 made up the remaining 4856 units.
Year to date the new vehicle sector is 13 per cent (5804 units) ahead of this time last year, with 50,059 vehicles registered compared to 44,210 at the end of April 2016. If the numbers continue, registrations will go beyond 150,000 for the first time in the country’s history.
April registrations totaled 10,635 units, made up of 6996 passenger cars and 3639 commercials. Said MIA chief executive David Crawford: “It was strongest April on record, and only the second time since the MIA began collecting data that April has surpassed 10,000 units. The other time was back in 1982.”