September issue out now

New Zealand’s car industry is facing years in the doldrums with sales tipped to take longer to recover from Covid-19 than the GFC. 

The MIA’s David Crawford warns it will take about five years for new-vehicle trading levels to claw their way back to pre-pandemic volumes. In the meantime, marques face having to review operations as they tackle the threat of shifting between alert levels, and battle production and distribution issues. 

VIA’s David Vinsen says last month’s level-three lockdown in Auckland slowed sales, but most other parts of the supply chain continue to operate close to normal. However, he suggests ongoing uncertainty for dealers casued by the coronavirus pandemic may force some to close.

Ports of Auckland is installing two Covid-19 testing stations as it prepares for mandatory testing of many workers, but it’s confident the new measures will not disrupt the discharging and processing of vehicles.

Phil Hilbbert, Protecta’s chief executive, says maintaining sales is increasingly a challenge in the current economic climate and most businesses need to “assume the worst, hope for the best and look at cost structures” – and shift their focus onto digital.

Jim Gibbons, of the Colonial Motor Company, warns market volatility is also expected to continue because of lockdowns.

Despite much gloom at present, VINZ’s Sean Stevens says New Zealand will be able to congratulate itself come the end of 2020 in its fight against Covid-19. He tackles how the pandemic is impacting on the vehicle-inspection sector.

Motor Trade Finance says suspending dividend pay-outs to ordinary shareholders is a “precautionary response” due to the pandemic. Find out its split between franchises and dealers when it comes to originators, shareholdings and net receivables. 

In other news, VIA announces Chris Stephenson as its first chairman under a new structure, Elton Goonan talks about his job as acting CEO of MotorSport NZ since the departure of Simon Baker in May, Simon Evans becomes a world champion by taking out the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, and find out what the BMW Race Driver Series’ new E46 class is all about.

The government is looking into “plausible changes” to the registration process for dealers, but the MTA’s Tony Everett says they may not go far enough. “The motor-vehicle traders’ register has always been short on content. It might be a good time to ‘fatten it up’ a bit.”

Todd Fuller, of AdTorque Edge, details how the old faithfuls of TV and radio still have their place in the marketing mix because they play an integral part in developing awareness of a brand to a broad audience. 

James Bond is back – from 1964 – in the shape of the first production car in the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation programme. Plus: Ram’s 1500 Warlock, Nissan’s electric Ariya and Ford’s Mustang GT Black Shadow Fastback.

Plus: JAMA’s annual report on the car industry in Japan, Honda NZ’s plans for a bespoke retail concept store in Nelson, VIA is advising members it is illegal to import or possess devices that broadcast on 760MHz, boost for electric-car chargers, in-depth industry statistics and much more. 

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