New Zealand 2014 Car Sales Erase 30-Year-Old Record

New Zealand new-car sales broke a 30-year-old record in 2014, jumping 12% to 127,179 units, with the industry saying the result reflected a range of factors including a strong economy.

Motor Industry Assn. CEO David Crawford says the “astounding total” also reflected competitive pricing made possible by the relative strength of the New Zealand dollar and a wide range of new models introduced during the year.

“The previous highest year for new-vehicle sales was 30 years ago in 1984, where 123,247 new vehicles were registered for that year,” Crawford says in a statement.

The year ended on a high note with record December sales of 9,594 units, beating the previous mark set in December 1976.

Car sales of 6,797 units gave the best December since 1976, while 2,797 commercial-vehicle deliveries were the highest since the MIA started keeping CV records in 1981.

“The outlook for 2015 is for another strong year, but the MIA does not anticipate significant growth over 2014 volumes, more likely a small-to-modest increase anticipating sales of new vehicles to be around 127,000 to 128,000,” Crawford says.

Within the best-ever 2014 total, several other records were broken.

CV sales rose 19.0% to 36,662 units to top the previous record set in 2013 of 30,822.

The Ford Ranger ended Toyota Hilux’s 32-year run as the best-selling pickup in New Zealand. There were 6,330 Rangers sold during the year to 5,774 for the Hilux, a margin of 556 units.

The percentage of sales of SUVs reached a record 29% (37,013 units) of total volume.

The five best-selling models for the year included three light CVs, a small car and a large car. Topping the chart was the Toyota Corolla (6,469 units), followed by the Ranger, Toyota Hilux, Holden Commodore (3,233) and Holden Colorado (2,948).

In the luxury market, BMW was the market leader for a third year in a row with 2,126 units, ahead of Audi (2,075) and Mercedes (1,811).

Toyota was the overall market leader in December with a 26% market share (2,472 units). This helped it retain full-year new-car leadership with 24,692 deliveries, well clear of Ford (14,033) and Holden (13,422).

Toyota also remained the CV market leader in 2014 with 8,446 units, followed by Ford (7,065) and Holden (3198 units).

Its total sales of 25,247 units meant one in five new vehicles sold in 2014 was a Toyota, as it topped New Zealand sales for the 27th straight year. Five of the 10 best-selling models were Toyotas.

Toyota New Zealand Sales General Manager Steve Prangnell says the brand is more in sync with Kiwis than ever before. But one sore spot for Toyota saw the Hilux 2-wheel-drive pickup finish second in its category with 1,478 units due to a stock shortage and gaps in the model mix.

Prangnell says the automaker will focus on adjusting these factors when the eighth generation of the pickup arrives in New Zealand late in 2015.