Slowdown?, what slowdown?
New passenger car sales in October were an all-time record.
And that was despite industry observers suggesting last month the peak had probably passed.
11,114 cars were sold in the month, besting the 10,795 sold in October 2016.
Year to date, sales of passenger and SUVs were up by 6.3% (5,321 units) and commercial vehicles by 18.0% (6,665 units) compared to 2016.
In October, 51.3% of passenger vehicle sales were SUV's. That is similar to the 2016 level, but actually much lower than we have seen for most of 2017.
Toyota was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 31% market share (3,410 units) followed by Holden with 9% (1,006 units) and Mazda with 8% market share (903 units). The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (1772 units of which 1589 were rentals which gave Toyota an unusual boost in the month) followed by the Toyota RAV4 (479 units of which 304 were rentals) and the Kia Sportage (354 units).
The booming tourism market is adding greatly to the demand for new cars here. October is usually big for rental fleet sales, but just more so this year.
Commercial vehicle sales were high as well, but not records. However, the 4,416 new commercial vehicles sold in October was more than a +12% rise from the same month a year ago.
At this time we don't have data for October used imports registered. This will come in a few days, but they have been running hot too, more than 12,500 per month for 16 straight months to September.
New vehicles sold
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20 Comments
What else do you expect? National left a very strong economy.
In what ways, specifically? Am curious...
National came into office promising to work on closing the productivity gap with Australia, but stopped talking about it later on, for good reason: NZ lagging.
When it comes to material living standards in the medium to longer-term, if productivity isn’t everything, it is almost everything. The terms of trade bob around, but probably won’t do much (harm or good) over the longer term, as they haven’t in New Zealand over 100 years. But productivity growth – managing to produce more per unit of inputs – is the basis for improved material living standards.
I am, however, happy to give them credit where it's due.
Yes, the Hosk is nothing but a windbag whose main purpose seems to be to cause reactions. Like an internet troll who gets paid to be on TV in tacky fashion.
But you claimed that NZ has a "strong economy left by the National govt". Are you saying that the quality of the economy is wholly determined by the govt? If not, what are the key drivers of the economy in your opinion?
Hi JC,
I think governments often have much less impact than is commonly believed - whether they be libertarian or egalitarian.
But good quality regulation is certainly important because market failures are widespread and harmful in our society. Properly formulated policy/regulation can establish incentive structures that accord with preferred social and economic objectives/outcomes.
JC - on personal note, I enjoy your posts: we may not always agree but you demonstrate a depth of experience and thinking. Plus, you are polite.
TTP
Am sure you're correct - but there are (many) others as well from ICT to viticulture and boutique beers.
Of course, there is room for improvement in economic management: labour productivity is too low and the exchange rate has been overvalued historically. There is always more that can be done to improve efficiency and equity outcomes.
Further, I worry about access to public health services, as well as literacy and numeracy standards in both children and adults.
That's right. Asset bubbles are welcomed by govts because they juice consumer spending, which is the key driver of the Anglosphere economies. Prior to the GFC, one of the hottest industries in the U.S. was home theater hardware and installation. After house prices started falling, the industry was toast.
With all due respect Bovine (my Cowpat friend), the mechanisms underpinning housing market activity are far more intricate and subtle/complex than might be explained by the volume of motor vehicle sales.
You need to be very careful in interpreting any such alleged "linkages". There's a lot of voodoo analysis around.
TTP
Our largest council insists on building suburbs far and wide outside of effective public transport. We are going to need more cars.
With the change of government Auckland will soon tax you for driving in from the far off suburbs they force you to live in, so they can have more money to build more suburbs further away and generate more tax revenue to build more far off suburbs. What could possibly go wrong?
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