KEY POINTS:
New vehicle sales eased in 2006 from a year earlier and those for used imports dropped more sharply, says Land Transport New Zealand.
Toyota extended its lead in new vehicle sales over second-placed Ford, due to increased sales of commercial vehicles.
New vehicle registrations were down 3.4 per cent to 99,986 - about three-quarters of them passenger cars and a quarter commercial vehicles.
Registrations of used imports fell 18.5 per cent to 136,615 - about 90 per cent of them passenger cars.
For December, 7069 new vehicles were registered. Of those 5468 were passenger cars, 5 per cent down on December 2005.
Toyota had a strong month, helping it increase its lead over Ford, while for the year as a whole its gains were in commercial vehicle sales. Last month, Toyota sold 1915 new vehicles, well ahead of the second placegetter Holden on 809.
Toyota sold 19,200 new vehicles, which was 19.2 per cent of the total, compared with 18,818 (18.2 per cent) in 2005.
Its 12,460 new car sales in 2006 was 16.2 per cent of the market, fractionally smaller than the 16.3 per cent in 2005, while Ford's share fell further going from 15.1 per cent to 14.3 per cent.
With commercial vehicles, Toyota's annual figure of 6740 in 2006 was 29.1 per cent of the market from 24 per cent in 2005, while Ford slipped from 17.8 per cent to 15.2 per cent.
And while the Holden Commodore remains the most popular model in the country ahead of the Toyota Corolla, it is just holding on by the slimmest of margins.
Corolla actually outsold Commodore two-to-one in December, at 957 sales to 474, but for all of 2006 Commodore remained just ahead with 5376 sales to 5297. The gap is far narrower than the 5851 to 5063 in 2005.
Motor Industry Association chief executive Perry Kerr said the industry was in good heart with sales volumes settling at a "vastly healthier level" than at the end of the 1990s.
"After five years of solid growth in new vehicle sales, a levelling-out was inevitable," he said.
Sales levels in 2007 were expected to be similar to 2006.
- NZPA
