August registration data showed the New Zealand new vehicle sector was back on track with total industry sales up over 17% year on year, according to a trade group.
The month saw 4,720 new passenger cars and 1,717 new commercial vehicles sold. “We are very happy with these numbers”, said Motor Industry Association CEO Perry Kerr.
Passenger car registrations were just under 7% higher than the same month in 2009 and year to date are 13.7% ahead of 2009. Commercial registrations 60% ahead of August 2009 Kerr said the registration tally in August 2009 (1,076) was one of the lowest recorded. Year to date commercial registrations are 16% ahead of 2009.
“This volume could be even higher but members are being constrained by a lack of stock in some areas”, said Kerr.
Toyota topped the total market with 1,104 registrations followed by Ford (790) and Mazda (604) registrations. Toyota sold 686 passenger cars, Ford 516 and Mazda 480. In commercials, Toyota sold 418, Ford 274 and Nissan 242.
Top selling passenger car of the month was the Toyota Corolla with 224 registrations, followed by the Suzuki Swift (208) and the Mazda 6 (177) registrations. Although a commercial vehicle, the Toyota Hilux was the best selling model for the month with 247 registrations. Other top three commercial models were the Nissan Navara (218) and Ford Ranger (181).

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By GlobalDataUsed car registrations – generally imported used cars – totalled 7,530 last month, 4.6% below last month and up 28.2% on a year ago, a government agency said.