Small was big, with Suzuki’s Swift topping the passenger count

WHEN it comes to weathering a storm – well, the new vehicle industry didn’t do too well last month.

The Motor Industry Association, which represents almost all new vehicle distributors, says the month just gone delivering just 9541 passenger car and commercial registrations – not only a 23.7 percent drop on the same month of 2022 but the worst February since 2014 – is all because of recent flooding in Auckland and then Cyclone Gabrielle’s more widespread impact.

MIA chief executive David Crawford says registrations of 6259 passenger cars and sports utility vehicles were down 18.1 percent, or 1386 units, while registrations of 3282 commercial vehicles presented a 32.4 percent, or 1574 unit, year-on-year decrease.

Notwithstanding the latter, one-tonne utilities continued to be the top selling models – with Ford Ranger beating Toyota Hilux by 10 units – with the best passenger model, the Suzuki Swift (above), sitting well adrift in third.

“The recent weather events on the back of a softening economy were a double whammy for the new vehicle sector in the month of February,” Crawford said in a release.

“While we expect demand for new vehicles in coming months to increase to replace those written off by recent weather events, high inflation combined with logistical delays due to road infrastructure creates a degree of uncertainty in the market.”

Toyota retained the overall market lead in February with 18 percent market share (1688 units), followed by Ford with 12 percent (1187) units and Suzuki with eight percent (768 units).

Ranger achieved 859 registrations, Hilux had 849 units and the next best-selling ute was the Mitsubishi Triton … on 230 units. The Suzuki Swift topped the car sector with 487 sales, of which 171 were hybrid models. The next best-selling passenger car was the MG ZS, with 234 units, followed by the Hyundai Kona on 217.

The top-selling fully electric car – in the month it achiueved the national New Zealand Car of the Year, as awarded by the New Zealand Motoring Writers’ Guild – was the BYD Atto 3, with 143 units. The top selling plug-in hybrid was the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, with 170 units, and Swift was the top-selling hybrid.

Meantime, the MIA has announced the it has appointed Aimee Wiley as MIA’s next COE, replacing Crawford mid-year though she will begin on April 1, with a three-month transition of duty following.

MIA president Simon Rutherford says Wiley has a wealth of senior experience, spanning the business sector including automotive with Ford NZ, which Rutherford heads, and Ford Asia Pacific Product Development. More recently she has worked for Government, as the programme director, Low Emission Vehicles (Clean Car Discount and Clean Car Standard) for the New Zealand Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi). She holds formal qualifications in accountancy and business law.