New Zealand February 2019: Mitsubishi, Honda prop market up 1.5%, 5 pickups in Top 5

The Triton (+37.2%) helps Mitsubishi up 22.9% in NZ.

We at BSCB wish to express our most sincere condolences to the victims of the recent shooting in New Zealand.

The New Zealand new vehicle market edges up 1.5% year-on-year in February to 11.699 registrations, meaning the year-to-date tally is now down -3.4% to 25.619. Passenger cars do all the hard work at +2.2% to 7.580 while commercial vehicles are immobile at 4.119. Year-to-date, passenger cars are down -3.8% to 17.505 and commercials down just 0.5% to 8.107. Brand leader Toyota (-17.5%) is once again in great difficulty, whereas direct followers Ford (+4.3%), Mitsubishi (+22.9%) and Mazda (+1.3%) are post positive scores. In fact, the entire remainder of the Top 10 is in positive bar Holden (-12.5%), with Honda (+24.3%), Kia (+13.3%), Hyundai (+9.2%) and Nissan (+5.7%) the most impressive. Further down, Haval (+113.3%), Subaru (+90.4%), Land Rover (+68.4%), LDV (+41.7%), Porsche (+40%) and Volvo (+36.2%) impress.

Over in the models ranking, there are 5 pickups in the Top 5 like a year ago in February 2018: the Ford Ranger (-4.9%) with a slim 13 sales advantage over the Toyota Hilux (-2.4%) ahead of the Mitsubishi Triton (+37.2%), Nissan Navara (-12.8%) and Holden Colorado (-17.4%). The Mazda CX-5 (+5.8%) is the best-selling passenger car in the country for the month, distancing the Kia Sportage (+22.4%) and Suzuki Swift (-19.9%) with the Toyota Corolla (-8.9%) at a paltry 9th place overall now that summer rental sales have stopped. The Mitsubishi ASX (+55.4%), Mitsubishi Outlander (+34.7%), Hyundai Tucson (+29.5%) and Honda Jazz (+28.6%) all post fantastic gains while at #14 the Hyundai Kona (+13.5%) is at its highest in NZ since November 2017 (#12)

Previous month: New Zealand January 2019: Toyota (-29%) single-handedly weighs market down 6%, Mitsubishi Triton above Toyota Hilux for the first time

One year ago: New Zealand February 2018: 5 Pickups in Top 5, market down 2%

Full February 2019 Top 70 All-brands and Top 30 models below.