Car sales up from year ago, Suzuki claims top spot

Suzuki sold 234 of its Swift cars last month, making it the top selling car in February.

After a commanding lead as the country's most popular new car last year, the Toyota Corolla fell into fourth place in February, but the company attributes the decline to a quiet period for fleet buying rather than bad worldwide publicity.

The industry as a whole was expressing restrained optimism after sales figures for February, released today, show 4302 new car registrations in February - 13.4 per cent higher than a year ago, although down 23.2 per cent from January.

Toyota was the single most popular new car brand, accounting for 12.8 per cent of the new cars last month or 551 sales, down from 19.7 per cent for 2009 as a whole.

In terms of specific models, last year 4699 Corollas were sold, more than 1800 cars ahead of the second placed Holden Commodore.

In February the Corolla slipped to fourth place with 167 sales, while the Suzuki Swift moved into first place with 234 sales. For all of 2009 the Swift was placed third, with about half the number sales as the Corolla.

Steve Prangnell, Toyota New Zealand's general manager of of sales and operations, said sales were about at the expected level.

Part of the market for Corollas was for business fleets, and many companies were not in the market at this time of year. Also, the Government was not buying many vehicles now while a new procurement process was being established.

Prangnell said he did not think publicity about Toyota recalls overseas had affected sales, and one of Toyota's key objectives in this country was for the Corolla to retain its place as the leading passenger car.

Pressure about safety concerns on some Toyota models grew during February, focused on the United States, culminating in Toyota chief executive Akio Toyoda apologising to Congress, and millions of American Toyota owners, for problems that led to widespread vehicle recalls for accelerator and braking failures.

The company in this country said about 320 Toyota owners had been affected by recalls, 61 Avensis wagons for a sticky accelerator and 260 Prius for a brake software upgrade.

Industry sales figures for February showed 6761 used car registrations - generally imported used cars - in February, down 1 per cent from January but up 46.2 per cent up on a year ago.

New commercial vehicle registrations during the month were 1357, up 23.1 per cent from the previous month and up 7.4 per cent on February 2009, with Toyota slightly extending its dominance, accounting for 32.3 per cent of the new commercials sold in February, compared to 29 per cent for all of 2009.

Motor Trade Association spokesman Ian Stronach said momentum in the industry was "holding".

"... while it's a bit early to say the market has turned the corner, we are seeing some good signs out there", he said.

Motor Industry Association chief executive Petty Kerr said the latest numbers were further proof that the industry was on a "steadily improving path with better results yet to come".

- NZPA