Used import boom continues

The year’s used car boom has continued in the build up to Christmas with 14,642 used cars crossing the border last month, bringing the year to date total of 158,469 units. This figure is 5793 ahead of total imports of used cars for all of 2016. New car importers brought in 10,957 units during November, up 4.6 per cent (484 units) on the previous month and down just 0.9 per cent on the same month last year. Year to date 106,283 new cars have been imported, only 4657 short of 2016’s full year total. Imports of used light commercial vehicles dropped significantly – down 12.3 per cent on the same month last year and 9.3 per cent on October’s 712 units. Although there was a 27.3 per cent fall in the number of new light commercial imports during November compared to October’s 3909 total, November’s 2841 units total was up a massive 53.3 per cent when compared to the same month last year. As usual, the vast majority of used imported cars came from Japan with 13,709 units imported in November – a 10.2 per cent increase on the same month last year, resulting in Japan holding a monthly market share of 94.68 per cent. Importers brought 389 used cars in from Australia - a 4.9 per cent decrease on November 2016. Year to date, 5,110 used cars have been shipped from Australia. There was a 29.4 per cent fall in used car imports (197 units) from the UK during November compared to the same month last year, while Singapore was up 27.9 per cent on 142 units.