New vehicle market continues to set records
The booming new vehicle market continued into July, with 6233 new cars and 1934 new commercial vehicles registered
during the month.
For new cars, this was 8.5% up on the same month in 2002, and the best July since 1990. It was also the strongest
January-July year to date result for thirteen years.
New commercial vehicles are showing even greater gains. 10.2% more new commercials were sold in July compared with the
same month last year, and year to date July the new commercial vehicle market is the strongest since 1985.
“Based on this strong and continuing level of activity we cannot rule out a 70,000 market for new cars in 2003,” said
Perry Kerr, CEO of the Motor Industry Association, “and the new commercial vehicle market for the year will surpass
20,000 units by a considerable margin.”
“After over a decade of uncertainty caused by the used import boom the new vehicle market is clearly returning to more
normal levels, and this is confirmed by the considerably greater confidence being expressed by distributors and
dealers,” said Mr. Kerr.
“The price gap between new and used cars has reduced considerably since the playing field was levelled by the abolition
of import duty on new cars in 1998,” Mr. Kerr said. “Since then there has been a steady and continuous recovery in the
new car market. Ironically, sales of used imports are also setting records, but all that this reflects is the fact that
as newly-imported used cars get older and older, they have to be replaced more often.”