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.

Sweden Car Sales By Brand : 2010-14

In the final in a series of thirteen articles on the Swedish car market, the five years shown below have been relatively stable. Volvo has remained the best selling brand in its home nation although being shadowed by VW. Toyota has slipped back and is now threatened by Audi and BMW for third spot. The US brands (purple shading) have had a poor run and now represent a quite a small part of the market.

Amazingly all through this time Saab has sold cars each year in Sweden. New owner NEVS is still unsure what to do but is thinking about production in Sweden and China.

To cover a nation like I have with Sweden I doubt I will be able to do to the same degree again. It goes all the way back to 1950, and at the bottom of the page there are links to the other twelve in the series. I hope you have enjoyed following the mainly ups and occasional downs of what has been the Swedish car market.

	Brand	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
	Volvo	53,718	58,862	52,800	53,939	61,495
	VW	35,692	43,492	42,732	39,393	44,947
	Toyota	21,628	16,595	16,608	17,202	19,336
	Audi	16,170	18,872	17,082	17,238	18,613
	BMW	13,959	16,036	16,088	16,192	18,120
	Kia	13,237	14,764	16,087	14,834	16,546
	Škoda	12,492	13,931	11,952	12,178	13,339
	Mercedes	10,475	11,861	11,408	9,214	11,531
	Ford	17,856	16,954	13,865	10,889	11,308
	Hyundai	10,163	12,546	11,850	10,404	9,947
	Renault	13,791	12,634	9,481	9,294	9,903
	Nissan	5,510	7,191	6,468	6,535	8,022
	Peugeot	10,167	9,298	10,638	7,267	7,397
	Fiat	2,744	4,171	4,377	5,114	6,166
	Citroën	6,087	6,347	5,543	4,948	5,696
	Opel	6,487	7,215	5,812	5,219	5,675
	Mitsubishi	4,866	5,296	3,529	2,622	5,126
	Dacia	1,715	1,620	624	2,235	4,777
	Mazda	3,296	2,716	2,160	3,494	4,438
	Subaru	4,365	3,476	4,306	4,925	4,285
	Honda	4,126	3,377	2,837	3,638	3,442
	Seat	2,629	2,724	2,090	2,678	3,364
	Suzuki	3,073	3,964	2,694	2,566	2,440
	MINI	750	1,415	1,492	1,360	1,646
	Lexus	821	993	720	717	1,025
	Land Rover	394	639	822	832	1,025
	Chevrolet	1,488	1,714	2,741	2,474	871
	Porsche	477	490	522	554	819
	Jeep/Dodge	1,395	1,002	534	416	816
	Lancia		102	467	376	315
	Tesla					266
	Saab	8,676	3,484	695	20	264
	Jaguar	216	217	116	199	177
	Alfa Romeo	210	542	271	230	175
	smart	135	73	55	48	122
	GM US	301	22	47	26	47
	Others	368	349	386	329	385
	Total	289,477	304,984	279,899	269,599	303,866

Data source: ABStatistik, without whom this series would not have been possible. If any other car maker or association would like a similar series, please contact me at rdc1234@gmail.com.

All other articles in the series: 1950-54, 1955-59, 1960-64, 1965-69, 1970-74,
1975-79, 1980-84, 1985-89, 1990-94, 1995-99, 2000-04, and 2005-09.