New car market continues recovery

New car market continues recovery

The Motor Trade Association (MTA) today announced that the new car market has continued its positive start to the year with February’s registration data just released by the NZ Transport Agency, showing February sales were up 13 percent compared to the same month a year ago.

MTA spokesman, Marketing and Communications General Manager, Ian Stronach said “So far, year to date sales of new cars are up 9 percent overall. The momentum is holding, and while it’s a bit early to say the market has turned the corner, we are seeing some good signs out there.”

February’s sales of 4302 units were more than 500 ahead of February 2009, and below January’s levels - this has been the pattern for the last few years.

Toyota displayed resiliency in the new car market leading it with 551 units followed by Holden, Ford, Mazda and Hyundai.

In terms of individual models Suzuki proved a surprise leader with its Swift model which accounted for 234 registrations ahead of the Mazda3 and Holden Commodore. Perennial market favourite Toyota Corolla only managed 4th spot, with Ford Falcon rounding out the top five.

Used import registrations of 6761 units were also up sharply over a year ago. At more than 2100 units or 46 percent ahead of January 2009, this sector is showing good signs of growth, although like the new car sector, there is still some way to go before recovery could be considered complete.

Traditionally the new commercial sector maintains its own pattern of sales, wherein February sales are normally ahead of January, and again this was the case with registrations of 1357 units being 255 units or 23 percent ahead of January. More encouragingly, February’s sales were ahead of the same month last year, up more than 7 percent – the first time this has happened in 20 months.

As with new cars, registrations of new motorcycles traditionally soften during February, and this year was no exception. At 708 registrations, motorcycle registrations were below January’s levels, although by less than 10 units overall.

Compared to last year, February motorcycle registrations were down by 23 percent and are off by 28 percent for the year to date. And while sales of scooters (those motorcycles and scooters of less than 60cc displacement) have suffered the biggest fall – down 34 percent for the year to date – February was the strongest month for scooter sales since April of 2009.

Suzuki remained market leader ahead of Honda, Harley Davidson, Triumph and Yamaha.

ENDS