The number of new car sales can be a good barometer of business confidence for a region and if the tally from last month is any sort of guide then Whanganui's economic climate looks pretty healthy.
According to the Motor Industry Association new vehicle registrations for April reached a monthly
level not seen in the last 34 years. Last month there were 9939 new vehicle registrations, up 649 units (7 per cent) on April last year. The majority (6789) were for passenger vehicles and the remaining 3150 were commercial vehicle registrations.
Registrations for individual regions are not yet available but Mark Quirk, managing director of Wanganui Motors, said the sales figures his team notched up last month made it the best April in a decade.
Mr Quirk believed the healthy market could be put down to some real confidence in small to medium-sized businesses in the district.
"For the last few years we've noticed people have been keeping their vehicles a little longer but now many are looking to upgrade," he said.
