Sales of cars and SUVs fell sharply last month, indicating a significant softening of the new vehicle market.
Total vehicle registrations last month were 13.5 per cent lower than during May last year, while the market to the end of May was down 4.9 per cent compared with the first five months of last year.
The chief executive of the Motor Industry Association David Crawford said total registrations of 7,624 passenger and SUV vehicles were down 17.8 per cent ( 1652 units) compared with May 2018, and commercial vehicle registrations of 4,635 were 5.3 per cent ( or 258 units) down compared with May 2018.
There were 12,259 new vehicles registered during May, 1910 fewer than during May last year.
Toyota remained the overall market leader with 15 per cent market share (1086 vehicles) followed by Mazda with 9 per cent ( 707 vehicles). and Hyundai also with 9 per cent market share ( 688 vehicles).
The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota RAV4 (492 units) followed by the Hyundai Tucson (301 units) and the Mazda CX5 (224 units).
In the commercial sector, Ford retained the market lead with 22 per cent market share (1,009 units) followed by Toyota with 17 per cent (807 units) and Mitsubishi third with 11 per cent market share (514 units).
The Ford Ranger retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 19 per cent share (878 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 12 per cent share (552 units) with the Mitsubishi Triton in third with 11 per cent market share (514 units).
Vehicle segmentation for May 2019 continued recent trends with SUV’s and light commercials dominating the market. The top three segments for the month were SUV medium vehicles with 19 per cent share followed by the Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4x4 segment with 18 per cent share and the SUV Compact in third with 13 per cent market share.
David Crawford said: "The outturn for May 2019 indicates the new vehicle market is softening, consistent with weaker regional vehicle sales in 2019 across Australia and New Zealand.
Year-to-date New Zealand’s five top-selling vehicles are all utes. The Ford Ranger leads with 4022 registrations followed by the Toyota Hilux with 2788, Mitsubishi Triton with 2518, Holden Colorado 1986 and the Nissan Navara with 1623 units.
In the passenger/SUV segment the leader in the first five months of 2019 is the Toyota Corolla with 1609 registrations followed by the Kia Sportage with 1524, Toyota RAV4 on 1473, Mazda CX-5 with 1440 and the Suzuki Swift with 1297 registrations.
May Top-10:
1 Ford Ranger, 878
2 Toyota Hilux, 552
3 Mitsubishi Triton, 514
4 Toyota RAV4, 492
5 Holden Colorado, 466
6 Nissan Navara, 362
7 Hyundai Tucson, 301
8 Mazda CX-5, 224
9 Toyota Hiace, 220
10 Mitsubishi Outlander, 217