2014 was the best year ever for overall – passenger and commercial – vehicle sales in the New Zealand market, a fact confirmed this morning by official rregistration figures.
Numbers released by the Motor Industry Association this morning show 127,179 new vehicles were registered in 2014, more than for any previous year and up 12% on 2013 (14,062 units).
MIA chief executive David Crawford says the result reflects, “the strong New Zealand economy, 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 vehicles sales was 30 years ago in 1984 where 123,247 new vehicles were registered.
Crawford notes a number of records were broken.
“The first of these is the most number of commercial vehicles sold in any one year of 36,662 units which overtook the previous record set in 2013 of 30,822 units, an increase of 19.0% (5,840 units),” he says.
The second was the closely fought battle in the sales of utes, with the Ford Ranger ending the Toyota Hilux’s incredible 32 year run as the bestselling ute in New Zealand.
There were 6,330 Ford Rangers sold during the year with the Toyota Hilux coming in second with 5,774 sales, a margin of 556 units in favour of the Ford Ranger.
Toyota has been criticised in media and on social media for its campaign shifting its claims of leadership to 4×4 only models, and casting dispertions on Ford’s claim of leadership.
The third record is the percentage of sales comprised of SUV’s which grew to 29% (37,013 units) of total new vehicle registrations.
