Used imports remain low

There were 7,147 used-imported passenger cars registered in New Zealand last month, a drop of 29.3 per cent when compared to 10,103 sales in January 2022.

However, monthly sales to start 2023 were up by 2.3 per cent from 6,989 in December last year.

Toyota’s Aqua, pictured, was the most popular model for the month, as the marque took out three of the top five spots with its Prius in second and Corolla coming fifth.

The Aqua sold 1,096 units and had a 15.3 per cent share of the market in January as sales increased 18.9 per cent from 922 in the same month of last year.

Next up was the Prius on 647 registrations, which was a 70.3 per cent increase from 380 a year ago and accounted for 9.1 per cent of the market. 

Mazda had the third and fourth best sellers. Its Axela sold 434 units for 6.1 per cent overall, with the monthly total 3.6 per cent higher than 419 units last year.

The marque’s Demio was next after sales rose 34.4 per cent from 186 to 250, which helped the model account for 3.5 per cent of market activity.

Toyota’s Corolla completed the top five with 232 units, up 27.5 per cent from 182, for 3.2 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, those figures helped Toyota top the marques’ ladder last month with 2,689 sales for 37.6 per cent of the market. Its sales fell 7.3 per cent from the same month in 2022. 

Mazda was the second-most-popular marque in January with 1,084 units, a market share of 15.2 per cent, and Nissan was third on 956 registrations, or 13.4 per cent. 

Their monthly sales numbers were also down from a year ago, with Mazda’s falling 18.3 per cent and Nissan’s dropping 30.2 per cent.

Honda and Subaru also suffered year-on-year drops but completed the top five with 454 and 437 sales, respectively.

Registrations fell substantially in all the regions year-on-year, except Tasman where the 62 used-imported passenger car sales matched the figure achieved in January 2022.

In the main centres, Auckland’s sales fell 21.8 per cent from 4,530 to 3,544 and Wellington’s figures tumbled 33.2 per cent to 552 registrations compared with 826. 

Canterbury’s numbers slipped 32.4 per cent over the same timeframe, from 1,577 to 1,066.