New vehicles race out the doors

Fiat Chrysler's area at Fieldays won best site Jubilee Award winner for 2014. The Toyota RAV4 was June's top selling passenger vehicle and the best-selling small SUV.

Strong kiwi and Fieldays specials helped push record sales in June

At the halfway mark for the year, new vehicle sales are at a record level with not only the strong Kiwi dollar accounting for growth in June but success at Waikato's Fieldays event.

Motor Industry Association figures released this week show the strongest June sales since it began collection records in 1981, and the strongest month of any for commercial sales.

Association chief executive officer David Crawford put the records down to the strong New Zealand dollar, which helps our companies' buying power, plus "New Zealanders' confidence that the economy is heading in the right direction".

"They have all combined to help drive sales of new vehicles skywards as records continue to fall," he said.

June sales of 12,519 for new passenger and commercial vehicles were up 17 per cent on June 2013 and 14 per cent for the half-year compared with last year.

"Registrations of 4002 new commercial vehicles for the month of June were phenomenal," he said.

The player of the month was Toyota's RAV4. It was not only the top selling passenger vehicle with 371 registrations but also topped out its small SUV segment.

Also leading medium sized SUVs was Toyota's recently launched Highlander with 308 sales. And celebrations continued at Toyota New Zealand's Palmerston North head office with five vehicles in its range in number one spot and June proving the third highest month for sales since registration records began in 1981.

The Toyota Hilux dominated the commercial segment with 21 per cent of the market at 847 sales, with Ford's Ranger 273 units behind in second place and Holden's Colorado a distant third with 359 registrations.

Toyota sits strongly in number one spot in both passenger and commercial segments and will consolidate that lead with the launch this year of the new Yaris small hatchback.

The Toyota RAV4 was June's top selling passenger vehicle and the best-selling small SUV.

This year's Fieldays and many car Fieldays specials at dealerships helped push sales in June.

One car company told Driven they had expected 75 sales for the four-day event but sold that many vehicles by day one.

Fiat Chrysler NZ was not only celebrating sales but the fact it had won best site for its Jeep demonstration track.

For Fieldays' big player, Hyundai NZ, the event wasn't about sales "but giving our customers a VIP experience," said general manager Andy Sinclair.

Hyundai NZ had 1031 registrations for June, the majority of those in the passenger segment, to keep it in third place for the year -- ahead of Ford NZ.