Last year was the strongest for the New Zealand new vehicle industry since 1990. Land Transport Safety Authority statistics show that a total of 91,964 new vehicles were registered in 2003, an increase of 9.6% on the 2002 total.
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A booming December saw 6,065 new cars registered, the strongest result for the month in 22 years, taking the full year tally for new cars to 70,453 – the first time 70,000 has been exceeded since 1990. Commercial vehicle sales at 21,511 also set a record – it was the first year since 1985 that more than 20,000 new commercials had been sold.
“The industry is in great heart,’ said Motor Industry Association CEO Perry Kerr. “Both our goals for 2003 have been exceeded – 70,000 passenger cars and 90,000 total vehicles.”
Toyota remained market leader in both the passenger car and light commercial vehicle segments, selling a total of 16,829 vehicles in 2003, but the brand’s 5.4% volume increase over 2002 didn’t match the 9.6% growth in the total market. Second-placed Ford (up 14.1%) recorded the biggest growth amongst the major players, followed by fourth placed Mitsubishi (up 19.2%) and sixth placed Mazda (up 28.5%).
Top selling car for 2003 was the Australian-made General Motors Holden Commodore, with 7,096 sales, followed by its arch-rival, the Ford Falcon (6,520), and the Japanese-built Toyota Corolla (4,380).
