Bloom May Be Off Rose for NZ Sales

New Zealand new-vehicle sales set a fourth consecutive annual record in 2017, but the Motor Industry Assn. believes the streak is over.

MIA CEO David Crawford says the robust tourism sector, which drove healthy sales of rental vehicles, made December the strongest on record, up 9.6% to 11,570 units. It pushed the full-year result up 9.0% to 159,871 units.

The car and SUV segment rose 5.8% in 2017 to 108,459 units, while commercial-vehicle deliveries climbed 16.2% to 51,412.

“Distributor expectations for 2018 indicate maintenance of current levels of activity, but further steady growth in the new-vehicle sector above 2017 outturn is not expected.” Crawford says in a statement.

Analysts say an expected fall in immigration numbers, combined with consumers concerned about the economic environment and their personal financial situation, will slow the market.

Toyota continued its domination in 2017 with 32,282 units sold for a 20.2% market share. Ford followed on 16,827 deliveries, ahead of Holden (14,411), Mazda (12,136) and Mitsubishi (11,456).

Toyota built its market dominance on 20,899 car and SUV sales, well clear of Mazda (9,915) and Holden (9,696).

It was a closer result in the CV market, with Toyota finishing on 11,383 units, just ahead of Ford (10,354) and Holden a distant third on 4,725 sales.

The luxury car and SUV segment, which slowed over the last few months of 2017, saw Mercedes-Benz retain market leadership with 2,540 unit sold, followed by Audi (2,060) and BMW (1,954).

For the second year in a row, the Ford Ranger pickup remained both the top-selling model overall and the top CV seller with 9,420 units delivered compared with 8,106 for the Toyota Hilux and 7,797 for the Toyota Corolla.

Crawford says vehicle segmentation for the 2017 year reflects the changing patterns of new-vehicle registrations, with SUVs and LCVs dominating the market and only the small-vehicle segment breaking into the top five spots with 12% share.

The top two segments for the year were medium SUV vehicles with a 17% share (26,515 units), followed by the pickup/chassis cab 4x4 group with 14% (22,175 units) of the market. Large  and compact SUVs rounded out the top five, each with 11% of the market.