New car sales hit 16-year high as boom continues

Sales of new vehicles in New Zealand in June hit a 16-year monthly high, according to Land Transport NZ.

It was the biggest month for new cars since June 1989, and the biggest for new commercials since March 1985.

LTNZ figures show that 10,381 new vehicles were sold in June - 23 per cent up on May sales, which were in turn 13 per cent up on those in April.

Toyota New Zealand sold 2148 new vehicles to account for 20.7 per cent of total sales, ahead of its nearest rival Holden with sales of 1665 (16 per cent), and third-placed Ford with 1633 (15.7 per cent).

Mitsubishi was next with 941 (9.1 per cent), Nissan 646 (6.2 per cent), Mazda 620 (6 per cent), and Honda 483 (4.7 per cent).

Toyota's general manager of new vehicles, Paul Carroll, said his company's bumper month was the result of the popularity of its new Hilux and Hiace models, together with continuing strong support for passenger cars such as Corolla.

In the first six months of this year, sales of 50,227 new vehicles were running nearly 6 per cent higher than in the same period last year. The result continues the unbroken four-year boom in the new-vehicle market.

Motor Industry Association chief executive Perry Kerr says sales so far this year are almost 50 per cent up on the same period in 1998, the year import duty on new cars was abolished.

"Incredibly, over 1000 more new commercial vehicles have been sold in the first half of this year than in the whole of 1998."

Kerr said the main thing that held new-vehicle sales back in the late 1990s was the used-import boom.

"Since then, the sustained growth of the new-vehicle market has resulted in much greater availability of late-model New Zealand-new cars," he said.