New Car Market up Compared to a Year Ago

As the first month of the traditional ‘new financial year’, the April New car market generally experiences a dip compared to March. Sales in 2010 have followed that pattern according to the Motor Trade Association (MTA) with registration data just released by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), showing April new car sales were off by 15 percent compared to March.

New car sales in April totalled 4585 units, 807 units below the 5392 achieved in March. For the year to date the 2010 passenger car market is ahead of 2009 by 2383 units or a healthy 14 percent.

More relevant though is the year on year comparison, which shows that compared to 2009, new car sales in April 2010 were 1060 units or 30 percent ahead.

MTA Marketing and Communications General Manager, Ian Stronach said “the new car market continues to show improving health, and the year on year comparison is providing a welcome boost for the industry after some lean times.”

“April is always a lower month than March. The combination of the Easter break and school holidays has undoubtedly contributed this time around, but looking at where things were a year ago, this is quite heartening.”

Toyota remained as market leader with sales of 757 units and a 16.5 percent share, followed by Holden with 503 units (11 percent), just 14 units ahead of Ford with 489 units (10.6 percent) and Hyundai whose 405 units (8.8 percent) was just enough to head off Mazda in fifth place with sales of 402 units (8.7 percent).

Toyota continues to lead the new car market for the year to date followed by Holden, Ford, Mazda and Hyundai.

In another closely fought month, where small cars again lead the way, individual model leadership stayed with Toyota Corolla (275 units) which just edged out Suzuki Swift (268 units). Holden Commodore (213 units) again proved the large car exception taking third spot ahead of Mazda6 (168 units) and Ford Mondeo (159).

No doubt aided by a strengthening cross rate against the Japanese Yen, and an increased pool of vehicles eligible for importation, used import registrations of 7053 were off by 10 percent compared to March, but were up strongly (48 percent) over April 2009 levels. There has been steady growth in this market in recent months, and it is now 43 percent ahead of the same time last year.

Sales of new commercial vehicles continue to remain subdued with just 1103 units sold in April. That was 492 units or 31 percent lower than March. More significantly though, it was 101 units or 8 percent below the same month last year. With traditional Field Days programmes due to kick in shortly, it is likely that volumes in this sector, particularly for light commercials, will increase.

Motorcycle sales also tend to drop away in April, with 2010 proving no exception. With sales of 581 units, it was the lowest market for some months; down 168 units or 22 percent on March and by an almost identical number and margin over April 2009. Again, neither sector within this segment was spared, with the fall off in sales shared pretty well equally between scooters (under 60 cc) and larger (over 60cc) motorcycles.

The Motorcycle market continued to be headed by Suzuki followed by Harley Davidson, Triumph, Honda and Yamaha.