Record January for used imported cars

This was the best January sales of used imported cars on record. Toyota was once again the top-selling used import car brand for January with 3,232 sales, which was a decrease of 4.8 per cent on the 3,396 units in same month of last year. The marque starts the year with a market share of 23.6 per cent – a fall of 2.7 per cent on the same month last year. Nissan held onto second with 2,629 sales last month – a jump of 15.9 per cent on January 2017’s 2,268 units. It holds 19.2 per cent of the market share. Mazda was third on 2,310 registrations, which was a healthy increase of 16.7 per cent on the same month of last year, and has a market share of 16.8 per cent. The battle for top used car model was close with the Mazda Axela back in the top spot, but only by 34 units, while the Suzuki Swift was second and the Mazda Demio was third – bumping the Nissan Tiida into fourth. There were 653 Axela sold during January –  up by 7.8 per cent on the same month of last year; Swift registrations totalled 619 units –  an increase of 14.2 per cent, and 588 Demio sales – a remarkable jump of 26.5 per cent. The three models hold 4.8 per cent, 4.5 per cent and 4.3 per cent of the monthly market share respectively. The regions that performed best when compared to the same month a year earlier were Wanganui, up 112 per cent from 63 in 2017 to 134 units last month, with Rotorua and Invercargill rounding out the top three, up 67 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.