Fuel costs hit sales of new 4WD cars

Sales of new four-wheel-drive vehicles appear to be coming off the boil, following an international trend triggered by anxiety over high fuel prices.

The Motor Trade Association, representing many car dealers as well as service station operators, yesterday issued an indicative analysis suggesting 4WDs accounted for only about 16 per cent of new passenger vehicle sales last month.

This compares with a surge in sales to 21.5 per cent in the eight months to August, which was up from 17.7 per cent for the same part of last year, in apparent defiance of soaring fuel costs.

Those larger figures were compiled by a separate organisation representing car companies, the Motor Industry Association, which has yet to break down last month's sales according to vehicle types.

But trade association spokesman Andy Cuming said his organisation had produced an indicative breakdown suggesting a slowdown in 4WD sales was following an earlier trend in the large-car market.

Industry association chief executive Perry Kerr said it was too early to comment on that, but until August it was thought that slower sales of large cars were caused by people swapping these for 4WDs.

Sales of large cars such as Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons were noticeably down last month on August, after a brief resurgence, although both industry spokesmen said these may have been skewed by large purchases of smaller rental vehicles ahead of summer tourism.

Toyota Corollas overtook Commodores as the most popular new cars last month, when 225 were sold to rental companies out of a total figure of 502, according to figures collected by Mr Kerr's organisation.

Even so, the overall figure was well above the 404 sales recorded for Commodores, the country's most consistently popular car for several years.

Ford Falcons, which were the second most popular new car last year, had to settle for fourth place last month behind Mitsubishi Lancers.

Mr Cuming said it appeared from his organisation's indicative analysis of September figures that large cars had slipped further to only about 15 per cent of the market.

This compared with 19.3 per cent in the eight months to August, which was in turn down from 23.8 per cent for the same part of last year.

Light, "micro" and small cars up to about 1800cc appeared to have accounted for 43.5 per cent of last month's sales, compared with 34.4 per cent for the eight months to August.

Mr Cuming acknowledged that New Zealanders seemed to be slower than Americans in cooling their ardour for 4WDs, having defied several months of fuel price rises before having second thoughts at car yards.

He suspected it may take longer for fuel costs to outweigh perceived benefits of cheap second-hand 4WDs starting to dominate our streets.

Sales of large 4WDs are down 7.3 per cent in the US so far this year, and by more than 25 per cent for some of the biggest gas-guzzlers.

Mr Cuming said the effect of Hurricane Katrina would have been more immediate for US motorists in stoking fears about oil supplies.