New Zealand Sales Off to Hot Start in 2012

New Zealand’s passenger-car market starts the year strongly with the second-highest monthly sales since record-keeping began in 1975.

The Motor Industry Assn. says January deliveries totaled 7,499 units for the best monthly total since 2008 and up 20.7% from 6,210 prior-year.

Commercial-vehicle sales, still feeling the impact of stock shortages resulting from last fall’s Thailand floods, fell 10% to 1,182 units from 1,313 a year earlier.

“The new-vehicle industry has had a very strong start to the year, which hopefully is an indication of things to come,” association CEO Perry Kerr says in a statement.

Toyota picked up where it left off, dominating the country’s new-car market with 1,740 deliveries for 23.2% of the segment. GM Holden was a distant second with 794, a 10.6% share, ahead of Hyundai with 780 and a 10.4% share.

Toyota also continued to lead the commercial-vehicle segment with sales of 237 units, followed by Nissan’s 157 and Ford’s 132.

The Toyota Corolla was the top-selling passenger car with sales of 828 units, ahead of the Suzuki Swift with 382 and Hyundai i30 with 312.

The Nissan Navara topped the commercial segment with 144 deliveries, ahead of the Toyota HiAce’s 132 and Ford Ranger’s 95. The Toyota Hilux finished in an unusual fourth position with 89.

Suzuki started the year in fifth place with new-car sales of 576 units, but holding bragging rights after pollster Roy Morgan reported it had the highest proportion of satisfied drivers.

For the fiscal year ending last October, 98% of Suzuki drivers said they were satisfied with their current vehicle. That was 6 percentage points above the average and ahead of Toyota, Honda, Ford and Volkswagen, all tied at 94%.

Roy Morgan Client Services Director Pip Elliott says the proportion of satisfied Suzuki drivers has increased by 4% over the past 12 months. Suzuki last year saw its New Zealand sales rise 6.5% to 4,833 units.

“Satisfaction levels for both Mazda and Hyundai have declined over the last 12 months, with Hyundai having the lowest satisfaction levels of the major brands,” Elliott says.

“This is a very interesting result for Hyundai, which has managed to grow sales share over 2011,” she says.

“With a range of new models hitting the New Zealand marketplace over the last 24 months, this decline in satisfaction is a possible byproduct of higher brand expectations from new Hyundai owners.”