New sales steady

David Crawford, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association, says that while new vehicle registrations for the month of July aren't as high as the previous month’s figures, they are consistent with an ongoing trend of strong monthly sales.

“Continued strong net immigration, robust New Zealand dollar and a sturdy local economy remain the key drivers to healthy new vehicle registrations,” says Crawford.

Year-to-date, the new vehicle sector is up 12.6 per cent by approximately 10,000 units on this time last year, with 90,737 vehicles registered compared to 80,704 to the end of July 2016.

Passenger car and SUV registrations of 7,605 units were down one per cent (80 units) on July 2016. 4,026 commercial vehicles were registered for the month of July, up by 4.3 per cent (165 units) on July 2016.

Toyota retains the top spot as the overall market leader with a 16 per cent market share (1,820 units), followed by Ford with 10 per cent (1,190 units) and Mazda with nine per cent market share (1,017 units).

Toyota was also the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 13 per cent market share (975 units) followed by Mazda with 11 per cent (811 units) and Mitsubishi with eight per cent market share (592 units).

The highest-selling passenger and SUV models for July were the Kia Sportage (330 units) with the Mazda CX-5 (309 units) and the Mitsubishi Outlander (279 units) following close behind.

Toyota was again the market leader in the commercial sector with 21 per cent market share (845 units) followed by Ford with 19 per cent (746 units) and Holden significantly behind with nine per cent (350 units).

For the month of July, the top selling models were all light commercial vehicles. The Ford Ranger narrowly hangs onto the top spot with 655 units, closely followed by the Toyota Hilux with 654 units, and the Mitsubishi Triton with 342 units.

Year-to-date, the top three selling models are the Ford Ranger with 5,631 units followed by the Toyota Hilux with 4,718 units and the Holden Colorado with 2,715 units.

SUV's and utes continue to top the segment tables with the SUV-medium segment being the highest on the list with a 19 per cent share, followed by utes with 15 per cent share and the SUV compact in third with a 10 per cent share.