Despite signs of dropping business confidence, new car registrations in July 2018 were the second highest ever for that month as the market continues on its path to another record-setting year for car sales.

“July 2018 new vehicle registrations of 12,324 vehicles were up 6 per cent (693 units) on July 2017," said Motor Industry Association CEO, David Crawford.

"It was the second strongest month of July ever, the strongest being back in July 1984 with 13,983 registrations. Year to date, the market is up by 1.8 per cent (1,621 units) compared to the first seven months of 2017.”

"Registrations of 8,041 passenger and SUV vehicles for the month of July were up 436 units on July 2017, an increase of 5.7 per cent and registrations of 4,283 commercial vehicles were up by 257 units (up 6.4%) on July 2017.”

Toyota retained the overall market leader with 17 per cent market share (2,070 units), followed by Ford with 10 per cent (1,203 units) and Mazda (1,003 units), Mitsubishi (966 units) and Holden (950 units) all with 8 per cent market share.

Toyota retained the market lead for passenger and SUV registrations with 15 per cent market share (1,202 units) followed by Mazda with 10 per cent (817 units) and Mitsubishi with 7 per cent market share (603 units).

In the commercial sector, Toyota regained the market lead with 20 per cent market share (868 units) followed by Ford with 19 per cent (799 units) and Holden third with 10% market share (418 units).

The top four selling models for the month of July were all utes. The Ford Ranger retained its position as the bestselling vehicle model with 674 units. This was followed by the Toyota Hilux (658 units), Holden Colorado (408 units) and Mitsubishi Triton (363 units). The top selling passenger model was the Toyota RAV4 (336 units) with over half of registrations coming from the rental market (154 units).

Despite ute models' dominance in the models table, the SUV Medium segment came in as the top segment for the month of July with 18 per cent market share. This was followed by the Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4x4 with 15 per cent of the market, and the SUV Compact with 14 per cent market share. Medium and Large segment only accounted for two and one per cent of the market respectively.

“Despite there being several worrying signs the NZ economy is not as strong as it has been combined with a significant drop in overall business confidence, new vehicle sales have for the time being held steady” said Crawford.

Top Vehicle Sales by Model - July 2018

-Driven