New Vehicle Position At Year End 2009.

New Vehicle Position At Year End 2009.

The new vehicle industry ended the year with total sales of 70,048, some 28% below 2008 volumes; new commercial vehicles were hardest hit with 15,644 registrations, compared with 23,933 the previous year (down by 34.6%). The passenger car total of 54,404 was reduced by 25.9% on 2008 volume.

“December is traditionally a quiet month for new vehicle sales and last year was no exception” said Mr Kerr, Chief Executive Officer of the Motor Industry Association. “We saw 3,973 new passenger car registrations and 1,012 commercials – both figures down on the comparable numbers for 2008.

Clearly the financial crisis has had a dramatic impact on new vehicle sales” said Mr Kerr. “Members of the Association however had anticipated this and the final numbers were in line with industry forecasts. The New Zealand car market has not had the benefit of support schemes such as “cash for clunkers” or “accelerated business depreciation” that have been implemented in other markets. Accordingly the industry has faced the full force of the recession. Looking forward we see small growth with numbers starting to improve from the second quarter of this year”, he said.

Mr Kerr continued that the new vehicle industry has weathered the storm well; MIA members have reduced stock with the number of unsold new vehicles at an all time low, to a point where customers are having to wait for some of the more popular models – in fact this is a return to the days of past.

For December we saw Mazda jump to number two spot for passenger car registrations with 476 sales – an all time record for the company.

Toyota has taken out all of the top spots for both December 2009 and for the full year selling the most commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles and top selling model. Overall they finished with 21.7% of the total market. Ford and Holden finished number two and number three respectively.

The luxury car market, compared to the mass market, has weathered the economic conditions well, with Audi taking the top spot for this segment. BMW and Mercedes Benz increased their market share – both moving up two places on the sales table.

Hyundai has also taken advantage of the adverse trading conditions jumping four places to number five, increasing their total market share to 7.2%. Their Korean associate Kia captured 3.05% of the total market. Others in the top fifteen to show improvement in overall market share include Subaru, Mazda, Nissan and Volkswagen.

The top selling model for the year was the Toyota Corolla followed by the Holden Commodore with Suzuki Swift taking out number three spot.

ENDS.

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