New Zealand August 2017: Toyota Hilux back on top of record market

The Toyota Hilux is up 60% year-on-year in New Zealand. 

* See the Top 65 All-brands and Top 30 models by clicking on the title *

New light vehicle sales in New Zealand are up 3% year-on-year in August to hit a new record for the month at 13.063 units. Passenger cars and SUV sales are down 3.2% to 8.607 but commercial vehicles including utes (slang of pickup trucks) are up 17.9% to 4.456 and manage to lift the overall market into positive territory. The year-to-date total, up 11.3% to 103.923 units, have never reached the six-figure mark that fast in the history of automobile in New Zealand. For comparison, in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis only 45.384 vehicles were sold in the same period. Toyota, up 10% to 19.2% share, remains master in command in the brands ranking, comfortably distancing Ford down 11% to 10% share, Holden up 2% to 8.2% and Mazda up 12% to 8.1%. Mitsubishi (+16%), Honda (+17%) and Kia (+26%) also frankly beat the market in the Top 10. Below, notice Subaru up 20%, Mini up 54%, Peugeot up 61%, LDV up 62%, Skoda up 81% and Tesla up 500%. Newcomer Haval sells 6 units for its 2nd month in market, lifting its YTD total to 8.

The Mazda BT-50 is up 85% to #10 in August. 

Model-wise, the Toyota Hilux surges 60% year-on-year to reclaim the top spot off the Ford Ranger (-4%) bt remains a fair distance below its rival year-to-date at 5.497 units (+30%) vs. 6.320 (+12%). The Toyota Corolla rallies back up 5 spots to #3 with 540 sales, 67% of which are to rental companies. It distances the Kia Sportage (+25%) and Holden Colorado (_36%) while the Mitsubishi Outlander (+82%) and Mazda BT-50 (+85%) deliver the largest year-on-year increases in the Top 10. A Top 10 that includes no less than six pickup trucks: Hilux, Ranger, Colorado, Triton, Navara and BT-50. Notice also the Nissan Qashqai up 53% to #12, the Honda Jazz up 34% to #19 and the Ford Escape at #26.

Previous month: New Zealand July 2017: Four pickups in Top 4 in market up just 0.5%

One year ago: New Zealand August 2016: Ranger #1, Tiguan and HR-V up

Full August 2017 Top 65 All-brands and Top 30 models below.