New vehicle market still ahead

Media Release

For Immediate Release
4 November 2005

New vehicle market still ahead

The ground breaking run of the new vehicle market continues with again record numbers of passenger cars and commercial vehicles registered in October, however the numbers are slowing from the hectic pace shown throughout the earlier part of the year.

Year to date October sees new passenger car sales (7,497) 1.6% ahead of the same month last year with the combined year to date figure of 65,752 cars already better than any full year total since 1990 – the year that saw the start of the commercial importation of used vehicles primarily from Japan.

Commercial vehicle registrations were likewise 5.9% ahead of October 2004 but down on September numbers. Year to date, the commercial market continues at a record breaking 6.6% ahead of 2004.

Toyota had a very strong month leading in both passenger cars and commercials with a combined total of 1,939 units. Ford remains in second with 1,557 registrations with Holden third with 1,340 units.

October is traditionally a big month for rental vehicle registrations and last month was no exception. The Toyota Corolla continues to dominate in this market which helped to make it the month’s top selling model with 734 registrations. Holden Commodore came in second with 494 registrations followed by Ford Mondeo – 322; with the Daihatsu Sirion (276 units) just pipping into fourth place ahead of Mitsubishi’s new entry into the large car market – the ‘380’ which had a respectable 275 units.

The top fifteen models shows an interesting swing towards mid size and smaller models which may be as a direct result of the continued high price of fuel. With fuel prices now starting to drop, we will see over the coming months if this trend is permanent or if New Zealanders return to buying their favourite large car..

Sheet 1: Top 15 distributors, full year 2004, and year to date October 2005, total vehicles, new
cars, new commercials

Sheet 2: Top 15 sellers by model, full year 2004, month and year to date October 2005, top 15
rental cars October 2005

ENDS

See... http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0511/Registration_data.xls

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