The New Zealand new passenger car market is still impacted by shortages of stock following the 11 March Japanese earthquake and tsunami, a trade group said on Wednesday.  

June registration data showed total new vehicle registrations of 7,875, which was down 1.6% on June 2010. Passenger car registrations of 5,365 were down 7.3% and commercial vehicle sales rose 13.2% to 2,510.

“Shortages of stock are still having an effect on the sale of new passenger cars”, said Perry Kerr, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association.  “I am however heartened by the number of vehicles crossing the wharf, in June, which show (from Customs clearance statistics) 1,698 cars arriving from Japan, up from 920 in May – with total clearances for the month of 4,841 cars.”  

A strong showing at Fieldays [a popular agricultural sector show] and the associated national promotions saw the commercial vehicle sector 13.2% ahead of June 2010 and on a year to date basis (January to June) up 19.3% (1,768 vehicles). Passenger cars were up 3.3% (1,010 vehicles) over the same period.  

In the passenger car segment Hyundai took out number one spot with 609 registrations (11.35%) followed by usual market leader Toyota with 574 registrations (up from sixth place in May) with General Motors’ Holden in third place with 564 registrations (10.51%).

In the commercial segment the top three places remained unchanged, Toyota in first place with 696 registrations (30.43%), Ford second with 332 registrations (14.52%) and Nissan third with 329 registrations (14.39%).

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The top three selling models for the month were all commercial vehicles with 500 Toyota Hilux registrations, followed by the Nissan Navara (319) and Ford Ranger (217). The top selling passenger car was the Holden Commodore (201) followed by the Suzuki Swift (196) and the Hyundai i30 (170).

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