New Zealand new vehicle sales “started on a positive note with both new passenger cars and commercial vehicles ahead on January 2010”, said Perry Kerr, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association.
New car registrations were up 10.8% on the same month last year to 6,210 units with commercials ahead by 19.1% to 1,313 – this figure being influenced by the very low sales volume last January.
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“The last four years have seen a relatively strong start to the year with registrations ahead of December numbers,” said Kerr. “The industry will be very happy with this start.”
“Looking forward, the MIA has now collated the industry projections for 2011 with the industry average, at the moment, up by just under 4% on last year’s 80,423 units for the full year.
Members still see growth but certainly not at the levels of 2010 (+14.8%) said Kerr.
“This is of course not unexpected given the dismal level of sales during the 2009 economic downturn.”
Toyota was market leader for the month with 23.7% of total registrations, followed by Holden (11.0%) and Ford (10.5%). In the commercial vehicle segment Toyota was top, followed by Ford and Nissan. The top selling model for the month was the Toyota Corolla (907) which was assisted by strong rental vehicle registrations [it’s summer there, peak tourist season]. Second was the Holden Commodore (380) and the Suzuki Swift third (265).
In the commercial segment the top selling model was the Toyota Hilux (214) followed by the Nissan Navara (170) and the Ford Ranger (146).
