New vehicle sales accelerating in New Zealand

Sales of new vehicles in New Zealand last month were the strongest for an April month since 1989, and sales of luxury vehicles were edging up too, the Motor Industry Association (MIA) announced Tuesday.

April registrations of 2,915 new commercial vehicles were up by 337 units year on year to make the strongest month of April on record, MIA chief executive officer David Crawford said in a statement.

Sales of passenger vehicles were up 224 units year on year to 6, 375, making the strongest April month since 1989, said Crawford.

Total sales last month of 9,290 were also the strongest month of April for all new vehicle registrations since 1989.

"April registrations were up 6 percent on April 2014. Year to date the market is up 7 percent compared to this time last year," he said.

Toyota was the overall market leader for the month of April with a 15-percent market share, followed by Ford with 12 percent and Holden with 9 percent.

"Sales of luxury vehicles are lightly up on this time last year. New registrations of 2,577 units year to date for Audi, BMW, Land Rover, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz are up 2 percent for the same period in 2014," said Crawford.