Record sales

The new vehicle market, for 2016, has already surpassed last year's whole outcome. With one month to go, the total is racing towards the 140,000 mark for the full year. The last remaining record dates back to 1973, when the highest number of passenger vehicles sold was 97,346 units. This record will also be broken with probably around 100,000 passenger (light vehicles other than light commercials) sold in 2016. The highest amount of sales were made in October this year, beating the July 1984 record and November registrations were up 18.2 percent on November 2015, delivering a steady 9.5 per cent growth for the year to date. "New registrations of 13,740 vehicles is the strongest month of November on record. Year to date there has been 135,544 new vehicles registered in New Zealand compared to 134,234 for the whole of 2015," said chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association (MIA), David Crawford. Toyota remained the overall market leader for the month of November with a 17 per cent market share (2,280 vehicles), followed by Holden with 11 percent (1,579 vehicles) and Ford also with 11 per cent market share (1,489 vehicles). Year to date Toyota, Ford, Holden, Mazda and Mitsubishi respectively remain the top five overall market leaders. The Ford Ranger remained the monthly top selling commercial vehicle model with 777 vehicles registered, followed by the Toyota Hilux with 483 vehicles and Holden Colorado with 388 vehicles. The Ford Ranger was also the top model overall for the month of November followed by the Toyota Corolla and the Toyota Hilux. The sales of sports utility vehicles remain the dominant vehicle segments with 17 percent market share for SUV medium vehicles followed by 13 percent market share for SUV large and the Pick up/Chassis Cab 4x4 with 12 percent market share. Registrations of SUV segments for the 2016 year will exceed that of passenger vehicle segments for the first time over a 12 month period. “Registrations of new vehicles are influenced by the economic environment. In New Zealand, the market is responding to strong net immigration, low cost of debt, strong regional economies and a high level of business confidence. It is expected these favourable economic conditions will continue into 2017," said Crawford.