New Zealand new vehicle sales set a December record of 11,570 units thanks to “a continued robust tourism sector, which in turn drove healthy sales of rental vehicles”, according to the Motor Industry Association.

The December tally was up 9.6% year on year and took the 2017 calendar result to a new record of 159,871 registrations, up 9%.

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Passenger car and SUV sales for 2017 were up 5.8% (5,945 units) and commercial vehicles by 16.2%.

Toyota last month remained overall market leader with a 26% share followed by GM’s Holden (10%) and Mitsubishi (8%).

Toyota also topped passenger and SUV registrations with 29% followed by Holden (8%) and Mitsubishi (8%).

The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (1,116 units of which 1,011 were rentals) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (516 units of which 309 were rentals) and the Mitsubishi ASX (287 units).

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In the luxury sector passenger and SUV sector, Mercedes-Benz was top with 2,540 registrations, followed by Audi (2,060) and BMW (1,954).

Ford led the commercial sector with a 19% share followed by Toyota (17%) and Holden (14%).

Ford’s Ranger remained the best selling commercial model (17%) followed by the Toyota Hilux (13%) and Holden Colorado (13%).

For the third consecutive year, Ranger was both the top commercial vehicle model and top model overall with 9,420 registrations versus 8,106 for the Hilux and 7,797 for the Corolla.

Vehicle segmentation for the 2017 year reflects the changing patterns of new vehicle registrations with SUVs and light commercials dominating the market, and only the small vehicle segment breaking into the top five with 12% share. The top two segments for the year were SUV medium vehicles with 17% followed by the Pickup/Chassis Cab 4×4 segment (14%). SUV large and SUV compact accounted for 11% each.

“Distributor expectations for 2018 indicate maintenance of current levels of activity, but further steady growth in the new vehicle sector above 2017 is not expected,” said MIA CEO David Crawford.

See also: Toyota New Zealand sales up 20.1% in 2017

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