Kiwi ute sales decline, but Ford Ranger still tops August sales figures

With two-thirds of the year complete the New Zealand new vehicle market has continued to cool-off from 2018 record levels with registrations now running 5.1 per cent behind the same point last year.

August was the fourth consecutive month in which fewer new vehicles were sold compared to the same month last year — confirming the overall market for the year is trending down on 2018.

Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford says the number of new vehicle sales of 12,607 in August 2019 was 4.5 per cent (583 units) lower than August last year.

Read more: July registration data — Toyota Corolla enters top 3 of NZ sales charts as market slows

Year-to-date sales are down by 5.1 per cent per cent on the first eight months of 2018, a reduction of just over 5400 fewer vehicles sold to-date in 2019.

"Growth has disappeared from the 2019 market and we are expecting an out turn for 2019 at about 6 per cent below 2018 levels," Mr Crawford said.

That would forecast an annual market of just over 150,000 new vehicles — still the third highest year on record behind 2018 and 2017.

Registrations of 8506 passenger/SUV models for August 2019 were down 1.5 per cent (133 units) on 2018 volumes while commercial vehicle registrations of 4101 dipped significantly, down 10.1 per cent (460 units) compared to August 2018.

The top two models for the month of August were utes. The Ford Ranger continued its hold on the top spot with 733 registrations, followed by the Toyota Hilux (690 units) and the Toyota RAV4 in third place (468 units).

August saw Toyota continue as the overall market leader achieving 19 per cent market share (2372 units) for the month, followed by Ford with 9 per cent (1084 units) and Mitsubishi retaining third spot with 8 per cent market share (1007 units).

Toyota led the passenger and SUV segment registrations with 17 per cent market share (1468 units) followed by Mazda with 8 per cent (701 units) and then Mitsubishi with 8 per cent market share (659 units).

The top-selling passenger and SUV models for August were the Toyota RAV4 (468 units) followed by the Toyota Corolla (388 units) and the Mitsubishi ASX (289 units).

In a commercial vehicle segment that showed decline in August, the Ford Ranger extended its run as the best-selling model with 733 units followed by the Toyota Hilux with 690 units and the Mitsubishi Triton with 348 units.

Year-to-date the top four models are utes with the Ford Ranger on top spot with 6464 units, followed by the Toyota Hilux with 4727 units, the Mitsubishi Triton with 3843 units and Holden Colorado with 3368 units.

In the passenger/SUV segment the 2019 top-seller is the Toyota Corolla with 2960 units followed by the Toyota RAV4 (2788 units) and Kia Sportage (2337 units).

New Zealand new vehicle buyers continued their migration into the SUV segments. The most popular choices for August were SUV Medium vehicles which represented just under 19 per cent of total vehicle sales ahead of 4x4 Utes with 16 per cent and the SUV Compact and SUV Large categories with 14 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Year-to-date the SUV categories have accounted for 66 per cent of the total passenger/SUV segment.

August Top-10

1. Ford Ranger, 733
2. Toyota Hilux, 690
3. Toyota RAV4, 468
4. Toyota Corolla, 388
5. Mitsubishi Triton, 348
6. Holden Colorado, 327
7. Mitsubishi ASX, 289
8. Nissan Qashqai, 269
9. Kia Sportage, 250
10. Mazda CX-5, 243