Solid month for used car sales

Passenger vehicle registrations increased by a healthy 8.6 per cent last month compared to the same month in 2016 with 1,081 more registrations. There were 13,645 sales compared to 12,564 a year earlier. When compared to August sales reduced by 5.78 per cent from 14,483 registrations. August remains 2017’s best sales month. So far in 2017, there’s been 122,510 used imported car registrations. Toyota has retained the top spot with a market share for the month of 23.7 per cent with 3,234 registrations. Nissan is second with 2,538 sales followed by Mazda with 2,220. The battle for top model is a lot closer with the Mazda Axela, Suzuki Swift and Nissan Tiida making up the top three. They hold 4.6, 4.4 and 4 per cent market shares respectively. The Nissan Leaf continues to gain popularity with sales of 182 units, an increase of 230 per cent on the 55 sales in September 2016. The electric vehicle has now climbed to gain 1.3 per cent of total used imported cars. The other stand out for the month was the Mazda CX-5 with 130 registrations – up 900 per cent on 13 sales during the same month last year. In terms of the regions, Oamaru had a stellar month with 33 sales in September compared to 19 during the same month last year – an increase of 73.7 per cent.  Up north, Rotorua dealers registered 198 used cars – up 41.4 per cent on September 2016’s 140 sales.  For the second month in a row, New Plymouth and Invercargill also did well when compared to this time last year with increases of 35.3 and 28.8 per cent.