Fieldays bumps up new vehicle sales

With a record 1178 registrations in June the Ford Ranger was New Zealand's most popular new vehicle. Photo / John Borren

Motor industry officials say last month's National Agricultural Fieldays helped to push new vehicle sales to an all-time record level in June.

An exceptional month for commercial vehicle registrations was supported by strong passenger vehicle sales to see the June total almost reach 16,000 units.

"Registration of 15,985 vehicles for the month of June is not only the strongest month of June ever but also sets a new monthly record for any month of the year," said David Crawford, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association.

"The previous single strongest month was October 2016 when there were 14,709 new vehicles registered. Year-to-date the new vehicle sector is 14.6 per cent (10,095 units) ahead of this time last year with 79,131 vehicles registered compared to 69,134 to the end of June 2016.

"While the 2017 Agricultural Fieldays held at the beginning of June has boosted the volume of new vehicles sales for the month of June, low interest rates, strong net immigration, strong New Zealand currency and a healthy tourism market [car rentals] continue to underpin the sales of new vehicles," Mr Crawford said.

Passenger car and SUV registrations of 10,181 units were up 10.8 per cent (995 units) on June 2016 while 5804 commercial vehicle registrations for the month of June was up by a massive 28.6 per cent (1291 units) on June 2016.

It was the strongest month of June on record for the registration of new commercial vehicles and the first time monthly commercial vehicle registrations have exceeded 5000 units.

Year-to-date the commercial vehicle sector is running 22.7 per cent (4858 units) ahead of this time last year.

The overall market leader in June was Toyota with 3310 registrations and a market share of 21 per cent. Ford with 11 per cent (1689 units) and Holden with 8 per cent market share (1352 units) were next in the total market standings.

Toyota also led the passenger and SUV segment with 20 per cent market share (2011 units) followed by Mazda with 9 per cent (940 units) and Hyundai with 8 per cent market share (829 units).

In the commercial sector Toyota gained 22 per cent market share with 1299 units just ahead of Ford with 21 per cent (1230 units) and Holden with 11 per cent market share (666 units).

New Zealand's best-selling new vehicle in June was the Ford Ranger which achieved its best ever monthly sales total of 1178 units followed by the Toyota Hilux with 964 units.

The Pick-up/Chassis Cab 4x4 segment was the most popular type of vehicle in June, accounting for 18 per cent of new vehicle sales with a further 10 per cent of the market gained by Pick-up/Chassis Cab 4x2 products.

Four of the top-five models in June were utes with the Holden Colorado in third and Mitsubishi Triton in fifth split by the Toyota Corolla which ranked fourth and was the most popular passenger vehicle model.

SUV models were also strongly represented with the Toyota Highlander and RAV4 ranked sixth and seventh respectively, the Mitsubishi Outlander ninth and Mazda CX-5 tenth.

Year-to-date (January-June) New Zealand's top-selling new vehicle models are the Ford Ranger (4976 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux (4065) and Holden Colorado (2384) with the Toyota Corolla the leading passenger model ranked at fourth (2334).

JUNE TOP-10

1 Ford Ranger, 1178
2 Toyota Hilux, 964
3 Holden Colorado, 650
4 Toyota Corolla, 508
5 Mitsubishi Triton, 466
6 Toyota Highlander, 451
7 Toyota RAV4, 412
8 Isuzu D-Max, 335
9 Mitsubishi Outlander, 314
10 Mazda CX-5, 309