New vehicle market heads for record year

Alastair Sloane — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 06:57:40 +0000

New vehicle registrations after 10 months of 2013 are trending towards a record year of around 112,000 units – or more than 40,000 up on a hard-hit 2009.

Commercial vehicles especially have contributed to the growth, with sales up 26.5 per cent over the same period last year. Passenger cars are up 6.7 per cent year-to-date over 2012.

Motor Industry Association CEO David Crawford puts the soaring sales down to growing confidence in the New Zealand economy.

“If the current strong sales continue it is likely total new vehicle registrations for 2013 will exceed 112,800 units, an increase of about 12,000 units over 2012 volumes,” he said.

At the end of October, 94,133 new passenger cars and light commercials had been registered, compared with 84,463 for the same period last year. That’s growth in 2013 of roughly 200 vehicles a week.

Last month’s sales alone set new records for both commercials (2734) and passenger cars (7962).

It was the best October for commercials since Motor Industry Association records began in 1981 and the best October for passenger cars since 1984.

Registrations of new commercial vehicles last month were up 33 per cent and passenger cars up 8.5 per cent up on October 2012, a combined increase of 14 per cent.

The best-selling commercial in October was the Ford Ranger (478) followed by the Toyota Hilux (396) and Holden Colorado (233).

The Ranger is nipping at the heels of the Hilux as the two workhorses enter the last eight weeks of the year. Hilux has 3998 registrations, Ranger 3870. The Toyota Corolla remains the country’s best-selling passenger car.

While the industry welcomes the growth, it must be noted that the line between registrations and sales is almost always blurred.

There’s a difference between registrations and sales. Dealers often register the vehicles they buy wholesale from distributors. The registered vehicles sit on the yard until they are sold.

So, 300 registrations of a particular vehicle in a calender month might mean, for example, that 15 or 20 – perhaps more – of those haven’t actually been sold to the end user.

Top 10 passenger cars year to date

1	Toyota Corolla	4656
2	Suzuki Swift	2528
3	Toyota RAV4	2229
4	Holden Commodore	2138
5	Toyota Yaris	2008
6	Holden Captiva	1901
7	Holden Cruze	1841
8	Mazda CX-5	1749
9	Hyundai Santa Fe	1741
10	Mazda3	1526

Top 10 commercials year to date

1	Toyota Hilux	3998
2	Ford Ranger	3870
3	Nissan Navara	2388
4	Holden Colorado	2047
5	Toyota Hiace	1941
6	Mitsubishi Triton	1097
7	Mazda BT-50	1090
8	Isuzi D-Max	685
9	Volkswagen Amarok	685
10	Mitsubishi L300	666

The post New vehicle market heads for record year appeared first on Automotive News NZ.

Women’s world car a small Ford

Alastair Sloane — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 21:53:28 +0000

The winner of the Women’s World Car of the Year for 2013 is the Ford Fiesta 1.0l Eco-Boost, a small hatchback powered by a turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine.
The Fiesta had earlier won the economy category of the women’s awards before edging out the Mazda CX5 and the Range Rover for the grand prize.
The Fiesta’s 1-litre powerplant was also chosen in separate awards as the international engine of the year.
Craig Von Essen, product and communications manager for Ford in the Asia-Pacific and Africa, said the company was “thrilled” to receive both the women’s world awards.
“Women pack powerful purchasing power, representing a huge market opportunity,” he said.
“The fact that a respected panel of published and specialist women motoring writers selected the Ford Fiesta 1.0l EcoBoost is a significant accolade as we work to design, develop and market our vehicles, technologies and services in a way that captures the attention of this very influential buying group.”
UK judge, Victoria MacMillan Bell, says Ford’s styling gets better and better.
“The Fiesta has such a high-end look and feel to it. Pair this with the multi award-winning 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine achieving range figures and performance never before seen and this very stylish pocket rocket wins in every category.”
The women’s world car founder and chief judge, New Zealand’s Sandy Myhre, said the awards were designed mainly to reflect the preferences of women buyers through the ballot box of women motoring writers.
“It’s what makes these awards unique, quite apart from the fact there is no other international motoring award in the world which is voted for by women and with women in mind,” she said.
in a purely fun category this year, judges were asked to nominate their Dream Car. This was won by the Aston Martin Vanquish, just nudging out the Jaguar F-Type.

The official results in each category:

Family car: 1st Audi Allroad, 2nd Volkswagen Golf, 3rd BMW 3-Series
Luxury Car: Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz SL550, BMW 6-Series
Sports car: Porsche Boxster S, Audi RS5, Toyota86/Subaru BRZ SUV: Mazda CX5, Hyundai Santa Fe, Nissan Pathfinder
Economy car: Ford Fiesta 1.0l Eco-Boost, Kia Cerato, Toyota Prius

The post Women’s world car a small Ford appeared first on Automotive News NZ.

Automotive News NZ » Cars for sale

New vehicle market heads for record year

Women’s world car a small Ford