And the last shall be first

If you're aiming to buy a new car to enjoy in 2000 you might make on the deal with a bit of give and take on the registration. Alastair Sloane works it out.

NEW-CAR BUYERS will be faced with a once-in-a-lifetime choice in December — do they register their vehicle this century or next? The last month of the 20th century is only a few days away but the industry is just starting to pick up on the significance between 1999 and 2000 registrations.

Buyers this year already have a 12-month registration sticker showing the 00, or year 2000, number. But cars registered from January 1, 2000, will display the 01 number for the year 2001.

The most significant aspect of December sales isn't the appeal to some of showing a January 2000 registration, but rather which New Zealander will own the last car to be registered this century?

Each December carmakers eager to close the year with healthy sales sometimes offer buyers a double whammy — a good price and a January registration.

Buyers drive on dealer plates for a week or so before registering the car in the New Year, in effect making it a year younger. This is why there is nearly always a disparity between sales and registrations in December.

But the Land Transport Safety Authority, expecting more December 1999 sales to be held over and registered in January 2000, cracked down and issued the same number of dealer plates as last December.

But not all buyers want to register their new vehicle in January. Some are happy with end-of-year registrations. And it is these that the industry is just starting to look at — buyers who, for whatever reason, want to register their new car in the last weeks of the 20th century.

Grant Smith, the general manager of Porsche and Aston Martin in New Zealand, said luxury buyers in December traditionally wan-ted a New Year registration.

"Indications are that our buyers want to register their car in January 2000," he said. "I haven't heard of any specific requests for December 1999 registrations but I would like to think buyers would do that."

January registrations have become such an important part of sales forecasts that the industry has been accused of having a mindset about them, to the point where a one-off "sale of the century" sales campaign hasn't even occurred to it.

Ford New Zealand public affairs manager Lisa Franklin said she hadn't had any feedback from dealers specifically about December registrations.

"But with the way the dollar is going prices are likely to go up in January and there will still be a lot of people buying in December regardless, perhaps buying for price rather than just for the 1999 registration," she said.

Don Bowden, the head of Holden New Zealand, said the concept of buyers competing for the last car to be registered in the 20th century was "intriguing."

"It's a highly charged thing, this January versus December issue," he said. "But it's interesting that there might be buyers who think it could be an advantage to get the last car of the century."

Mercedes-Benz, one of the few carmakers about to go into a second century of trading, is finding it is largely business as usual.

"Customers are taking delivery of their cars in the normal fashion, paying for them and registering them immediately," said Martyn Daw-son, the company's marketing manager.

December, however, might be a different story for some buyers. "That's crystal-ball-gazing," Dawson said. "But I'm sure most people will be happy with a Mercedes-Benz bought at the end of the 20th century.

"In fact, buyers who register in December make it in time for both benefits — they get one of the last cars of the century along with the double 0 number of the next century on the windscreen."