New Zealand Car Sales By Brand : 1990-94

The GM Holden Commodore was a popular car

In the 1980's, New Zealand deregulated it's economy and the initial effects were extremely negative. We see that in the chart below as both new and used car sales tumbled until 1993. The market then benefited by the reforms and sales rebounded with gusto in 1994, especially used imports.

The fight for the top spot was intense at this time, with Toyota managing to stave off Ford. Japanese brands were dominating with European marques were largely ignored. Taking Russian cars in exchange for NZ dairy products had run its course and Lada was now on the way out.

	Make	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
	Toyota	15,450	11,827	11,291	13,163	12,974
	Ford	13,343	8,651	10,265	11,626	12,174
	Mitsubishi	9,982	7,249	6,441	6,354	8,156
	Honda	6,066	5,087	4,531	5,023	6,173
	Nissan	7,829	6,419	6,356	5,009	5,648
	GM	6,780	4,731	4,409	3,934	5,451
	Mazda	4,520	3,069	2,936	2,454	3,175
	Subaru	2,362	2,331	2,030	1,460	1,162
	Peugeot	1,052	380	501	686	1,019
	Suzuki	870	945	649	745	1,001
	BMW	555	460	515	602	764
	Daihatsu	1,047	1,347	955	723	760
	Hyundai	615	399	301	322	520
	Citroen	218	162	185	248	390
	Mercedes	123	93	125	163	348
	Audi	153	85	102	104	343
	Fiat	712	388	158	156	282
	Land Rover	105	81	92	100	226
	Saab	19	10	64	206	214
	Lada	1,037	649	293	195	175
	Volvo	107	37	30	69	155
	MG Rover	320	266	72	79	137
	Alfa Romeo	226	207	134	85	112
	VW	109	35	11	34	94
	Proton	65	212	160	83	29
	Isuzu	190	61	50	23	13
	Renault	215	193	123	22	10
	Others	352	241	185	154	260
	Total	74,422	55,615	52,964	53,822	61,765
	Used Imports	85,324	47,351	39,146	43,841	123,853

Picture credit: Wiki/Frahnie.
Data source: MIA.

For sales previous from 1984-89, just click here.
The following in the series 1995-99 can be found here. 

New Zealand Car Sales By Brand : 1985-89

Car assembly plant Petone, Wellington, NZ.
Hillman then Mitsubishi cars were assembled there.

Things were changing in the 1980's for the NZ car industry. Import duty on new cars started to be progressively removed and there was a relaxing of restrictions on used cars being imported. The bottom of the chart below shows used import numbers starting to impact on the market. The used cars were mainly from Japan who drive on the same side of the road.

Toyota muscled itself into top spot past both Ford and Mitsubishi. European makes started to make a bit of a comeback as fully built up tariffs were slowly being removed. Assemblers started to assess their operations and GM closed its plants in 1984 and 1990. Lada benefited with a deal between the NZ dairy board and Russia. Butter and meat was exchanged for vehicles. Peugeot was just about in the top 10 by 1989 and Fiat was close behind.

	Brand	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
	Toyota	12,364	11,668	10,087	12,426	15,826
	Ford	17,260	15,345	14,476	13,145	13,399
	Mitsubishi	13,272	10,528	10,095	9,866	12,666
	GM/Holden	9,813	9,008	13,342	9,003	9,678
	Nissan	6,157	5,997	6,317	5,803	8,625
	Honda	9,946	7,476	6,528	6,001	6,369
	Mazda	4,904	5,171	3,855	4,055	4,491
	Lada	210	424	961	1,387	1,843
	Hyundai	187	964	1,616	1,582	1,699
	Subaru	2,319	2,443	2,215	1,276	1,463
	Peugeot	49	68	163	470	1,157
	Daihatsu	1,098	998	937	838	1,136
	Fiat	250	810	1,332	981	1,108
	Suzuki	1,451	1,464	925	785	859
	BMW	513	909	877	631	678
	Rover Group	188	396	713	593	504
	Alfa Romeo	128	392	414	326	274
	Isuzu	151	47	130	231	273
	Citroen	103	204	195	170	263
	Renault	243	338	389	188	256
	Audi	211	288	321	258	247
	Mercedes	229	458	306	179	133
	Volvo	170	320	263	149	132
	Lancia	76	57	52	73	125
	Proton			76	90	117
	Jaguar	96	129	202	150	104
	Others	128	173	712	562	437
	Total	81,516	76,075	77,499	71,218	83,862
	Used Imports	2,918	3,946	12,129	17,371	50,966

Data source: MIA.

For the start of the series, simply click here for 1975-84.

1990-94 can be accessed here.

New Zealand Car Sales By Brand : 1975-84

A 1975 Austin 1300. Very popular in NZ

Getting sales data for this period for NZ car sales is a challenge. I did manage to put this together and it gives an insight into what was going on and it was a time of great change. The NZ market had a high import duty on fully built up cars, so assembly from kits (CKD) was the only way to sell in any numbers.

In 1978 Japan became the main source of new cars, overtaking the UK where the car industry was failing due to underinvestment. For GM, the emphasis went on Holden and Vauxhall was phased out. Hillman was replaced by Mitsubishi and Honda took over from BLMC. As factories switched their source, sudden shifts in volume occurred. Japanese success also affected smaller assemblers such as VW as well.

BLMC had been the biggest company in 1975 but soon slumped as Honda profited greatly when the assembler switched to that brand. Mitsubishi's leap from 1975 to 1980 was mirrored by the fall of Hillman. The artificial assembly situation created a sudden swing to Asia as can be seen by the colours below.

One thing you cannot see in the chart was how Ford was changing too. It had been sourcing cars from the UK but was changing to Mazda cars, which started being assembled instead. Ford had recently taken a share of Mazda and rebadged some of its cars to be sold as Ford's in certain regions of the world.

	Brand	1975	1980	1983	1984
	Ford	15,374	15,144	15,964	20,730
	Mitsubishi	1,425	13,620	12,240	15,235
	Toyota	6,858	12,174	8,931	14,949
	Honda	841	7,675	10,161	10,598
	Holden/GM	7,576	6,882	8,537	10,155
	Nissan	6,778	5,613	7,483	9,428
	Mazda	3,864	4,510	5,075	7,151
	Subaru	154	1,264	1,516	2,334
	Daihatsu	136	192	1,052	1,550
	Suzuki	43	95	633	910
	Lada		203	305	595
	Hyundai			236	576
	Fiat	501	169	165	560
	BLMC	16,215	3,964	164	264
	BMW		49	196	211
	Audi		63	157	169
	Renault	539	48	458	150
	Peugeot	479	82	77	131
	Volvo		62	203	104
	Alfa Romeo		144	130	92
	Mercedes	137	88	74	78
	Citroen	129	49	69	68
	Talbot			134	64
	Hillman	8,946	1,480
	Vauxhall	5,413	1,404
	Chrysler	1,970	560
	Škoda	808	124
	VW	662
	Others	853	108	117	316
	Total	79,701	75,766	74,077	96,418

Picture Source: KiwiMotoring.

For sales from 1984-89, just click here.