Well, the end of the year is almost upon us, and all those who thought car sales were going to start to drop off this year (me included) have been well and truly stymied by the record-breaking performance of the motor industry.
As I write we’ve just got the October figures, and there’s no doubt the trend will continue to the end of the year, with MIA CEO David Crawford prompted to declare: “Registrations of new vehicles have averaged a staggering 11,237 a month year to date, and if this pace continues, the industry is will smash last year’s record sales of 127,352 new vehicles by about 7,000 units.”
He adds: “The new vehicle market continues to perform beyond expectations, with sales in October up five percent on October 2014 and delivering a steady 5.5 percent growth for the year to date. New registrations of 12,684 vehicles was the strongest month of October on record. Year to date there have been 112,217 new vehicles registered in New Zealand compared to 106,446 this time last year, an increase of 5,825 vehicles.”
The trend continued very much as it has the rest of the year, with Toyota staying ahead of the pack – accounting for more than one in four vehicles sold – while Ford lost its second place, on the back of stock shortages, to Holden, but both are very close in actual sales figures.
Mazda and Hyundai made up the top five, but it was interesting when looking at the actual vehicles sold, with Toyota’s numbers boosted by huge sales to rental companies, with the Corolla the top-selling passenger model, (1,334 vehicles) followed by the Toyota Highlander (428 vehicles), the Toyota Yaris (378 vehicles) and the Toyota RAV4 (362 vehicles).
It was also interesting to see that there’s been a slight hiccup in light commercial sales (65 units down on September), but this is easily explained away, and will undoubtedly rectify itself next month. Ford, which is the top seller in the ute segment, had a stock shortage, while Toyota is running out the old Hilux in preparation for the launch of its new model this month.
This is reflected by the numbers: the Ford Ranger was the monthly top selling commercial vehicle model with 561 vehicles registered, followed by the Toyota Hilux with 364 vehicles and Holden Colorado with 296 vehicles.
Year to date the Ford Ranger remains the top selling commercial vehicle model with 17 percent market share (5,527 vehicles) followed by the Hilux with 14 percent (4,521 vehicles) and the Holden Colorado with nine percent market share (3,006 vehicles).
Not surprisingly given the volume of rental sales the Toyota Corolla was the top model overall for the month of October with 1,334 vehicles followed by the Ford Ranger with 561 vehicles and the Toyota Highlander with 428 vehicles. Year to date the top selling models in order are the Ford Ranger (5,527 vehicles), the Toyota Corolla (5,398 Vehicles) and the Toyota Hilux (4,521 vehicles).
The sales of sports utility vehicles remains the dominant vehicle segment with 34 percent market share for the month of October and 34 percent year to date. The small passenger vehicle segment was the second biggest segment on 20 percent market share for the month of October and 15 percent year to date.
The pick-up/chassis cab segment was the third strongest segment with 17 percent for the month of October, but with 21 percent market share year to date remains the overall second strongest segment.
Season’s greetings
Well we don’t have any geese to fatten up, but the old man’s hat could do with a bit of a boost as we prepare for Christmas and the New Year! Certainly we’re gearing up to have a good time, but by all accounts it’s going to all be within walking distance of home, give or take the odd lift/responsible driver/taxi.
Although I’d like to go out to the bright lights, I’m more afraid of the blue lights, so circumspection is very much the key word for this Christmas season.
That said, I hope you all manage to have a really good time, and let’s keep it all on the island so we can come back next year!
All the very best to all of you, from all of us at Company Vehicle.
