Luxury car sales purring in Hawke's Bay

Bayswater European managing director Rob Townshend has built a new showroom dealership for Jaguar and Land Rover Range Rover on Carlyle St, Napier. Photo / File

Luxury car sales are taking off in Hawke's Bay, with some luxury names almost at record yearly levels - just half-way through the year.

New figures from the Motoring Industry Association this week show 2439 new car sales were registered to Hawke's Bay owners between the start of January and the end of June - more than half the number bought in the region in the 2017 calendar year - and included one Ferrari, a Maserati, three Porsches and a trio of Teslas.

Mercedes-Benz appears to be the brand of choice at the luxury end with 40 sales registered to Hawke's Bay owners, while sales of British brand Jaguar are just two away from matching the numbers sold for the whole of last year, with sales already double the number sold in the whole of 2015.

A dozen Jags were bought by Hawke's Bay motorists in the six months to June, compared with 14 in the whole of last year.

With the luxury market going so well both Jaguar Land Rover and Lexus have recently spent big money revamping their Hawke's Bay showrooms in Napier and Hastings, respectively.

"We have been doing really well with Jaguar - we were awarded Jaguar dealership of the year last year - so I think it's probably a combination of a lot of things," Bayswater European managing director Robert Townshend said.

"We've obviously built the new Jaguar Land Rover dealership, which is a state-of-the-art showroom and I think that's reinvigorated the brand - plus we've seen some new, really good models come out.

"Also, Hawke's Bay's economy is rocking along quite nicely. I do worry about the rest of the country but I do look at Hawke's Bay, and that's why we are spending quite a bit of money here. "Hawke's Bay is quite diverse. If something is down it doesn't mean the whole economy of Hawke's Bay is down. That's been a part of the success of Hawke's Bay as well."

Ford was the region's most popular choice overall with 320 new models sold and Bay Ford/Bay Mazda Napier principal dealer Steve Ward said there was also a move there towards the higher-end models, and the SUV market in particular.

"As far as Ford is concerned, obviously the Ford Ranger is still the dominant light-commercial vehicle, so the overall Ford figures are being driven by the Ford Ranger.

"The market is moving into SUVs in a big way, close to 32 per cent of national sales. And we've just launched the Ford Endurer which is a luxury SUV, there's updates coming for the Everest, which is the seven-seat SUV and, on the Mazda side, we've just launched the CX-8."

An ageing population, along with changing lifestyles and growing families were behind the demand for SUVs, he said.

"I think for people in the senior age group they are realising they want to climb up into a car that gives a better drive experience, while with seven-seats it's growing families with growing needs, so that segment just continues to grow."