2014 could be best year yet for car industry

The Ford Ranger was the top selling car in NZ last month.

New Zealand's car industry is on track to have its best year ever after a strong August for passenger and commercial sales.

There were 3106 new commercial vehicles registered last month, according to the Motor Industry Association, with it the strongest August since 1981 when collection of records began.

"The strong New Zealand dollar and healthy economic confidence combined with competitive pricing is fuelling the strong demand for new vehicles, returning sales to above pre-financial levels", said David Crawford, Chief Executive Officer of the MIA.

"Year to date sales of new commercial vehicles is at an unprecedented level at 21 per cent above 2013. If this trend continues it is possible total commercial vehicle sales for 2014 could exceed a staggering 36,000 units, some 5000 units above 2013 and 13,000 units above 2012".

There were 7083 new passenger vehicles sold during August, up 3.7 per cent on August 2013. Year to date registrations of passenger vehicles are 5108 units ahead of 2013.

Crawford told Driven that if sales these levels continue "we could see a total of around 124,000 new vehicle sales for 2014, which would be the highest on record, the previous highest being 123,247 units in 1984".

The Ford Ranger was the top selling new vehicle model in August with 548 new registrations, followed by the Toyota Corolla with 469, the Toyota Hilux in third with 413, Holden Commodore fourth and the Honda Jazz in fifth place with 265 registrations.

Toyota was the overall market leader for the month of August with 18 per cent (1857) market share, with Ford second with 1130 units registered and Holden a close third also with 1110.