New truck registrations, over 3500kg GVM, were up nearly 20% in August – to 376 sales – from 314 registrations a year earlier.
Used import truck sales also surged ahead last month – up 45% from 82 sales in August 2012, to 119 last month. Colin Muir, sales and marketing manager for Isuzu NZ – which sold 22 trucks over 23 tonnes – was very upbeat at the state of the local truck market.
“August was a good month for Isuzu, across the board, with plenty of new sales enquiry,” says Muir.
“Isuzu delivered a significant number of vehicles to our dealers which were all pre sold to customers.
“It was our second biggest month for new truck deliveries to our dealers – by a big margin – and shows that there is still many more registrations to be done in 2013,” adds Muir.
“Heavy sales for Isuzu have improved month-on-month this year, and we are preparing to do volumes not seen since 2008/2009.”
Isuzu led the new truck market on 74 sales over 3500kg, 25% up from 59 units a year earlier, for a 19.7% market share.
Second was Mitsubishi Fuso, on 52 sales, up 6 % from August 2012 when in notched up 49 sales. Fuso had a 13.8% market share last month.
Hino grabbed third place in August with 46 new truck sales – up 12% from 41 sales a year earlier, for a 12.2% share of the new truck market.
Two big winners last month were Mercedes-Benz and UD Trucks, the first up 193% to 41 units, from only 14 trucks in August 2012. UD was up even more than the German brand, by 212%, from eight trucks a year earlier to 25.
Sixth biggest seller last month was Volvo, 36% up to 15 sales from 11 a year earlier, followed by Iveco which almost doubled registrations this August to 13, up from seven in 2012.
Recording falls were Fiat, down 61% from 26 last August to only 10 sales last month, Ford down 25% from eight sales to six, and Caterpillar, down 66% from six units last August to two.
In the used import market, the leader was again Isuzu with 30 sales (up 114% from 14 a year earlier).
Nissan also had a stellar month, up 325% to 17 sales from only four in August 2012.
