Australia / NZ Mainstream Brand Comparison 2014

An NZ advertisement for Ssangyong

Mainstream cars are now the focus of this comparison.  Many car makers view them as one market and only a few brands sell in one market and not the other. In this comparison, these makes are omitted. Data comes from VFACTS (Aus) and MIA (NZ). The Australian total vehicle market (including all commercial vehicles) is 8.7 sales for every vehicle sold in NZ. That ratio becomes the benchmark as to which brands are more popular in either country.

Looking at the chart below, green shows which models are more popular in NZ and yellow Australia. It seems Chinese brands have made greater inroads into NZ, although they are not big selling brands in either country. While Ford has been losing ground in Australia, it is quite a lot stronger in NZ. Even Holdens are slightly more sought after by Kiwis than in their home market.

Honda used to be the better seller in NZ, but overpricing in the Shaky Isles has seen a shift west across the Tasman Sea. Kiwis 'get' Citroën and Peugeot but not Renault, or is it down to how they are promoted? Chrysler (mainly Jeep for both countries) and Subaru are much more popular in Australia, where 4WD vehicles are more common. For some reason Aussies are fixated with Mazda cars, but less so 'across the ditch'. Ssangyong manages to be a third higher in sales in NZ and manages a 0.7 to 1 ratio. Renault Australia outsells it's Kiwi counterpart by 33 to 1, despite the average 8.7 to 1.

	Brand	Aus	NZ	Ratio
	Ssangyong	1,280	1,882	0.7
	Chery	592	307	1.9
	Great Wall	2,637	919	2.9
	Citroën	1,307	381	3.4
	Suzuki	17,422	4,838	3.6
	Peugeot	4,394	1,094	4.0
	Škoda	3,853	854	4.5
	Ford	79,703	14,057	5.7
	Fiat	6,994	1,041	6.7
	Holden	106,092	13,456	7.9
	Toyota	203,501	24,711	8.2
	Mitsubishi	68,637	7,538	9.1
	Nissan	66,025	7,172	9.2
	Honda	32,998	3,555	9.3
	Kia	28,005	2,858	9.8
	VW	54,801	5,227	10.5
	Isuzu	23,824	2,191	10.9
	Hyundai	100,011	8,314	12.0
	Mazda	100,704	8,138	12.4
	Chrysler	33,612	1,992	16.9
	Subaru	40,502	1,823	22.2
	Renault	10,014	298	33.6
	smart	108	1	108.0

Australia is embracing Renault but not NZ yet