New Zealand April 2016: Kia Sportage stuns in best April since 1982

The Kia Sportage ranks 4th overall in New Zealand in April. 

* See the Top 25 models and Top 64 All-brands by clicking on the title *

New Zealand posts its best April volume since 1982 with sales up 7% year-on-year to 9.939 leading to a year-to-date total up 4% to 44.210 registrations. David Crawford, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association says: “Healthy regional economies in Auckland and Christchurch combined with continued strong net immigration and competitive pricing drove strong new vehicles registrations. Since January 2012, when comparing growth for the same month a year earlier, the passenger sector has seen growth in 50 out of 52 months and for the commercial sec- tor it has been 46 out of 52 months.” The SUV segments accounts for 36% of vehicle registrations in April and continues to push the market up along with pickup trucks accounting for 22% of sales.

Toyota is the favourite brand in the country once again and follows the market at +7% to 1.516 sales and 15.3% share but Ford is catching up fast at +19% to 1.276 and 12.8%. Holden (-1%), Mazda (+17%) and Nissan (+10%) follow with Mitsubishi (+16%), Kia (+52%), Isuzu (+34%), Mercedes (+40%), Subaru (+43%), Skoda (+48%), Peugeot (+64%) and Land Rover (+58%) all post excellent scores inside the Top 20 brands. Just outside, Chinese LDV is up 192% to a solid 21st place. Model-wise, the Toyota Hilux reclaims the overall lead off the Ford Ranger but is still far behind year-to-date at 1.880 units (+11%) vs. 2.411 (+34%) for the Ranger. Below the Nissan Navara at #3, the Kia Sportage is the surprise winner in the passenger car category, posting an outstanding 4th rank overall with 290 sales (+193%). The Mazda CX-5 (#6), Toyota RAV4 (#8) and Hyundai Tucson (#10) make the SUV category proud. This means the Toyota Corolla (#9) is the only car in the Top 10…

Previous month: New Zealand March 2016: Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton shine

One year ago: New Zealand April 2015: Ford Ranger takes control

Full April 2016 Top 25 models and Top 64 All-brands below.