New car market retreats in July

New car market retreats in July

The Motor Trade Association (MTA) today announced that the new car market in July was below both that recorded in June 2010 and July 2009. The market this year has shown a modest but steady improvement and July marks the first reversal in this trend, although the overall new car market remains ahead of last year by 15 percent.

Registration data just released by NZ Transport Agency, figures show that July sales of 4446 new passengers cars were down 23 percent over June 2010 and 1 percent compared to June 2009, making it the second smallest month for the year to date.

Commenting, MTA spokesperson Ian Stronach, Marketing and Communications General Manager said “While it’s never good to see an upward trend in sales falter, it’s not a surprise given the strength of the market in June. On the face of it quite a few sales were brought forward, with customers seeing the array of offers that most distributors had out there in June as being too good to turn down.”

“We fully expect to see an improvement in the next two months as buyers move to secure deals prior to the increase in GST. It makes for something of an up and down market, but the industry is well used to coping with these sorts of swings, and will continue to cope with whatever the balance of 2010 holds for it.

The passenger car market was again led by Toyota with sales of 668 units and a 15 percent market share. Ford reclaimed second spot with sales of 502 units and an 11 percent share. Following in third spot was Holden with sales of 441 units and a 9.9 percent share, closely followed by Mazda with sales of 438 units and 9.8 percent share with fifth spot going to Hyundai with sales of 373 units and an 8.3 percent share of the market.

Toyota (17 percent) remains the clear new car market leader for the year to date ahead of Holden (10.5 percent) narrowly ahead of Ford (10 percent).

In a tight market, Ford Falcon was something of a surprise leader in terms of individual model sales with 210 units. Toyota Corolla took second spot with 181 units, Mazda’s Mazda3 was in third with 164 units, Suzuki Swift was just behind in fourth with 158 units and Holden Commodore rounded it out in fifth spot with 155 units.

In contrast to the sluggish new car market, the used import car market remained strong. July’s 7893 registrations were not only the best for any month this year, but the highest in the last 26 months. July was 7 percent ahead of June 2010 and 28 percent ahead of July 2009. For the year to date, used import registrations are 39 percent ahead of 2009.

New commercial vehicle sales of 1551 units were down by 30 percent compared to the very strong level seen in June, but were still 22 percent higher than July in 2009. After a slow start to the year, the new commercial sector has picked up in recent months and on a year to date basis, is 11 percent ahead of 2009.

The motorcycle segment remained soft at just 384 units; the lowest total for 2010 and in fact the lowest in more than 6 years. Compared to June, sales were down by just 2 percent but 24 percent compared to July 2009. On a year to date basis, the motorcycle market is down by 23 percent.

ENDS

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