Used-car sales creep up

There were 9,913 used-imported cars registered in New Zealand last month*, an increase of 5.5 per cent when compared to 9,396 sales in January 2021.

However, monthly sales to start 2022 were down from 10,113 in December last year.

The Toyota Aqua, pictured, was the most popular model for the month, with the Mazda Axela and Toyota’s Prius the second and third best-sellers, respectively. 

The Aqua sold 902 units and had a 9.1 per cent share of the market in January as sales increased 36.5 per cent from 661 in the same month of last year.

Next up was the Axela with 406 registrations, which was down 10.4 per cent on January 2021, and 369 Prius units were sold – an 8.7 per cent drop from a year ago. 

Nissan’s X-Trail was fourth in the rankings, while the Volkswagen Golf and Honda Fit took fifth and sixth spot in the rankings, respectively.

Toyota was the top marque in January with 2,841 sales for 28.7 per cent of the market. Its sales rose 8.5 per cent from the same month in 2021. 

Nissan was the second most-popular marque in January with 1,346 units, a market share of 13.6 per cent, and Mazda was third on 1,299 registrations, or 13.1 per cent. However, their monthly sales numbers were down from a year ago, with Nissan’s falling 2.3 per cent and Mazda’s dropping 3.8 per cent.

Among the regions, Canterbury had plenty to cheer after registrations increased 28.4 per cent from 1,224 in January 2021 to 1,572 last month.

Otago was another big climber with a 27.7 per cent hike over the same period from 300 to 383, Southland jumped 11.2 per cent from 134 to 149, and Gisborne had a 10.5 per cent lift from 57 to 63.

In Auckland, sales increased 3.1 per cent from 4,289 to 4,424 and Wellington’s year-on-year figures were only 0.1 per cent lower with 813 registrations compared to 814.

The biggest drop came in Marlborough where figures fell from 48 in January 2021 to 40 last month, a fall of 16.7 per cent. 

*Waka Kotahi dataset incomplete, 2022 statistics are for January 1-28 only