Cable can be cut on import ITS - for now - Autotalk

VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2017

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AA defends appraisal system 3Farmlands picks Toyota 4Armstrong reflects on career 9SEAT returns to NZ 11 9

Continued on page 7

Toyota New Zealand has revealed its market modeling for the year is showing a mas-

sive number of sales – but there is scepticism.

At a Lexus function last week, Toyota New Zealand sales and operations manager Steve Prangnell told journal-ists modelling shows overall New Zealand new vehicle sales could hit 157,214 for the year – well ahead of the 146,753 cars and com-mercials sold in last year’s record market.

But Prangnell says he is scepti-cal and will be suggesting a differ-ent figure to head office in Japan at an upcoming planning meeting.

“It is going to be above 144,000, but I am sceptical about 157,000,” Prangnell says. “When I go up in March we are going to say 150,000.”

He is expecting strong sales for Toyota New Zealand’s opera-

Modelling shows massive 2017 market

Steve Prangnell

Continued on page 4

Toyota New Zealand has confirmed

Intelligent Transport System units that conflict with local radio spectrums can be deactivated.

The units, which broadcast in the 760 Mhz range, which in New Zealand is owned by telecom-munications compa-nies for 4G networks, are progressively be-ing fitted to Toyotas sold new in Japan.

If active, the transmitters make the car an illegal import.

The Imported Motor Vehicle Indus-try Association has been working on the issue with the Ministry of Trans-port, and a delegation visited Japan to look at the issue late last year.

The system that creates the issue is Toyota’s ITS Connect unit, which is an

optional extra on cars fitted with the brand’s Safety Sense suite of intelligent safety technology - a package of items like autonomous emergency braking and lane departure warnings.

While it is available in only a small number of models, one is the high-volume Prius, while Safety Sense is becoming more widely spread. Toyota Japan confirmed last month all Vitz

Cable can be cut on import ITS - for now

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Dunedin dealer Neil Cottle is calling on the Automobile Associa-

tion to make clear the differ-ence between its appraisal and inspection services.

Some dealers are using the AA appraisal cars receive dur-ing the compliance period or afterwards as a selling point, Cottle says.

But often they do not explain that an appraisal for a dealer is not as thorough as a customer-initiated AA inspection.

“Some dealers are giving a big pep talk to the peo-ple, saying it has had an AA inspection,” Cottle says.

“They should be calling it an appraisal rather than an inspection.”

He is keen to highlight that an appraisal does not cover information about damage or repairs to a vehicle.

“What I’m saying is, if you as a client rang the AA and booked the car in [for an inspection], the AA would say ‘this car has had repairs in a certain area’.

“The appraisal reports don’t have that information

on them. “It is important for a per-

son to know if it is an original car or has been repaired or had extensive restoration done.”

The AA should be provid-ing only full reports, Cottle says.

“A normal inspection con-sists of a lot of detail, includ-ing photographs.

“I don’t think the AA is be-

ing fair to its members. A lot of people think they have got an AA report.”

Motoring services man-ager Stella Stocks says the AA has had no complaints about dealers misrepresenting what an appraisal is.

“We would be very disap-pointed if any dealers were misrepresenting the differ-ence and would deal with that.”

Stocks acknowledges

dealers use the appraisal sys-tem as a “selling tool”.

But she says the difference is clear if people read the ap-praisal form, which recom-mends they also arrange an inspection.

In terms of understanding the difference between the two reports, “some people do, some don’t,” she says.

“At the end of the day people all need to do their own due diligence on the car.”

That might include an appraisal, inspection or test drive.

Stocks says the appraisal and inspection services will remain separate, being sold to dealers and consumers respectively.

To be associated with the appraisal programme, the AA requires dealers to have a physical yard the public can visit. It also needs 80% of a dealer’s stock to be appraised by the AA.

If those conditions are not met, the organisation reserves the right to remove dealers from the programme, Stocks says.

Customers confused about AA reports: Dealer

Stella Stocks Neil Cottle

Car depreciation result unsurprising

A study that shows New Zealand cars depreci-ate more quickly than

anywhere else in the world is not a surprise for some industry leaders.

Research by Carspring, a

United Kingdom-based on-line used car dealer, says cars in New Zealand lose 54% of their value by the time they hit 56,000km.

That is followed closely by the UK on 52% and the

United States on 51%.Imported Motor Vehicle

Industry Association chief executive David Vinsen says the result sounds accurate, with the supply of used im-

Continued on page 30

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NEWSTALK

tion – with the Toyota and Lexus brands forecast to top 30,000 sales – the first time this has been achieved.

Why the positive out-look?

“Tourism is massive; immigration is strong. And there are lots of infrastruc-ture projects regarding roads and housing.”

The company is forecast-ing the New Zealand dollar

to continue at a healthy rate against the Japanese yen and Prangnell says interest rates are relatively low.

“Money is still cheap in New Zealand.”

January’s statistics show

the year is off to a hot start. A total of 13,823 new vehicles were registered in the month, up to a massive 16% year-on-year, and well ahead of the average 9.5% growth seen last year.

Modelling shows massive 2017 marketContinued from page 1

Rural supplies co-oper-ative Farmlands is en-tering into an exclusive

collaboration with Toyota New Zealand, which gives its shareholders a better deal on new vehicle purchases.

As part of the initial four-year deal, Toyota is also the exclusive supplier of fleet vehicles to the Farmlands Co-operative.

Farmlands' current purchasing relationship with Ford New Zealand will conclude on February 28, according to its communica-tions and government affairs manager, Tom Clancy.

“We have notified our Farmlands customers and card holders that they can continue to receive Ford support and services from selected dealers,” Clancy says.

“Farmlands customers will be able to continue to enjoy the same special pricing beyond 28 Feb 2017 — the only change is that it is now directly from Ford,” he says.

The newly signed Farm-lands agreement with Toyota gives rural New Zealand even better access to its motor vehicles, and dealer network, says Toyota New Zealand’s

sales and operations head Steve Prangnell.

He says that the brand partnership is a natural fit for Farmlands shareholders, many of whom are either past or current Toyota cus-tomers.

Farmlands chief executive, Peter Reidie, says choosing Toyota as a strategic partner aligns with the co-operative's mission to enhance the pro-ductivity of its shareholders.

“As a co-operative, Farm-

lands exists to make sure its shareholders get a better deal. Our new agreement with Toyota ensures we live up to our end of the bargain, no matter where our share-holders are in New Zealand,” Reidie says.

“We have also chosen Toyota to be our fleet sup-plier, so you can expect to see more Farmlands-brand-ed Toyota utes on-farm in the not too distant future,” he says.

“We are focused on improving the safety of New Zealand’s rural roads — we can do this by providing modern vehicles with all the safety features, comple-mented by driver educa-tion,” Reidie says.

The majority of Toyota ve-hicles come with an ANCAP five-star safety rating, which appealed to us.”

Farmlands chooses Toyota in preference to Ford


NEWSTALK

CELEBRATING

25 YEARS

Great Lake Motor Distributors is to build an impressive new state of the art purpose built show-

room in Albany, on Auckland’s North Shore, to house the SsangYong and LDV vehicle brands.

It will be GLMD Owned and Oper-ated - falling under the Vehicle Logistics Ltd group of companies which operates dealerships in Henderson, Takanini, Taupo and Wellington.

Directors Deon Cooper and Rick Cooper manage the dealerships directly.

The new 3800 square metre dealership site is located at 281 Albany Highway, a 20 minute drive from Auckland’s CBD.

“SsangYong and LDV repre-sent some of the fastest growing vehicle brands in this country, and Auckland is key market with close to 50% of all new vehicle sales sold in the region” says Deon, managing director of the company.

“Both vehicle brands have a range of new vehicles arriving over the next 18 months, includ-ing a complete new line-up from SsangYong, full electric vans from LDV and a new range of LDV utes”

The new dealership boasts a high-stud workshop with heavy duty hoists to accommodate large motorhomes based on LDV chas-sis.

“This strategic location also al-lows us to provide better service to some key long-term partners such as NZ Football, Action Manufactur-ing and Ritchies Transport Hold-ings. SsangYong also has a well-established retail customer base on the Shore”.

Construction will begin as soon as the building consents are granted, with plans to have the dealership open by Christmas 2017.

Impressive new North Shore facility for Great Lake

http://www.mmnz.biz


NEWSTALK

Giving exceptional service to his community has seen John Andrew Ford dealer principal

Paul Brown honoured at Ford’s Salute to Dealers.

Brown is one of six winners selected from a field of nearly 80 nominees from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, Africa and the Middle East.

His achievements include his dedi-cated support of Camp Quality, a char-ity that focuses on improving the quality of life of children living with cancer.

Proceeds from his dealership’s many fundraising efforts – more than $950,000 to date – have helped Camp Quality grow its offerings and the num-ber of children it can accommodate.

Brown is also a generous supporter of the BDO Wellington-to-Auckland

Cycle Challenge, a seven-day cross-country event that raises money for a variety of charitable causes.

Each year his dealership donates vehicles to the winners of the corporate challenge race, who in turn assign the vehicles to be used by selected charities, including the Cancer Soci-ety and Ronald McDonald House.

Brown has also recently completed two terms on local school boards of trustees.

Salute to Dealers awards programme chairman Edsel B Ford II says he is amazed by the efforts of the company’s dealers from all around the world.

“Time and time again our dealers find

ways to truly go further in their com-munities,” he says.

As part of the award, the Ford Motor Company Fund donates $10,000 to a charity of each winner’s choice.

The five other winners are from the United States, Canada and Turkey.

Global award for generous John Andrew Ford principal

John Andrew Ford dealer principal Paul Brown is congratulated by Edsel B. Ford II

Nissan’s spinoff premium brand Infiniti is set to arrive in New Zealand – but in the hands of a

different distributor.Global Motors New

Zealand Limited, owned by interests related to the Giltrap and Spencer families, currently distributes Renault, but will add the brand to its roster over the next couple of months.

It will officially – but quietly – begin selling the brand from its Auckland and Christchurch dealerships from March.

A spokesperson for Global Motors – who declined to be named – confirmed to AutoTalk sales will begin with the Q50 sedan, QX70 SUV and QX80 SUV.

Stock has already begun arriv-ing – AutoTalk spotted a small ship-ment of two QX80 SUVs as well as

a bigger group of brand new QX70 SUVs parked on the Port of Auckland wharves this week.

The spokesperson also says the

Q30, QX30, and Q60 Coupe models will follow later in 2017, “and what we saw in Detroit will be part of the brand’s line-up in mid-2018.”

In Auckland, a new dealership for

Infiniti will be constructed at 500 Great South Road, Greenlane but Au-totalk believes the Infiniti vehicles will initially share space at the Renault site

next door.In Australia, Infiniti vehi-

cles officially went on sale from the third quarter of 2012, and the brand shares premises with Nissan Aus-tralia in Dandenong South, Victoria.

While Infiniti spun-off from the Nissan brand, it now exists in its own right as part of the Renault Nissan Alliance.

Nissan New Zealand man-aging director John Manly says that while they have

looked at Infiniti in the past, the local distributor had not sought the brand, planning instead to focus on its role as a mainstream distributor.

Renault-distributor lands Infiniti brand


PEOPLETALK

would be fitted with Safety Sense from this year.

As of October 2016, around 50,000 vehicles car-ried the ITS Connect system.

Toyota NZ spokesperson Morgan Dilks says the brand has been working with the MoT and IMVIA to provide them access to cars in Japan for testing, and confirma-tion of how the system works and how it can be disabled.

The system can be identi-fied through a dash screen menu, and disabling it is as simple as cutting a wire - although access is reported to be difficult.

It does not affect other safety systems.

“The ITS system (which has the conflicting frequency in New Zealand) can be disa-bled by removing the power input to the ITS computer in the vehicle,” Dilks says. “This is detected on the multi-display when the ignition is turned on.

“Disabling the system through cutting the power input does not impact on any of the vehicle’s other safety features.”

Dilks notes this may not always be as simple.

“Currently while the ITS system can be disabled in isolation without affect-ing other vehicle features (such as safety) then ITS is manageable. In the future, if ITS systems are more tightly integrated then it could be more difficult to disable in isolation.”

IMVIA policy analyst Kit Wilkerson believes compa-nies processing vehicles for export in Japan have the ability and tools to remove dashboards in an economic and damage-free way to undertake the work.

The association’s recom-

mendation is that a gap is cut in the wire and a ‘do not reconnect’ sticker is at-tached, so someone does not inadvertently repair the wire at a later date. This must be completed before the car leaves Japan.

“Our primary advice is to leave these cars where they

are, but if they have to im-port them, this is what needs to be done.”

He is unsure how long the solution will work.

“I think it is going to be fine until they start inte-grating more autonomous functions into vehicles, and Japanese manufacturers are

working to make sure this happens fast,” he says.

“We are watching, and continuing to work with stakeholders here in New Zealand, and we are continu-ing to monitor the progress of this technology in Japan,” Wilkerson says.

Cable can be cut on import ITS - for nowContinued from page 1

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AutoTalk's managing editor looks at the month gone by on AutoTalk.co.nzR

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NEWSTALK

January 5ANCAP aligns protocols with Euro NCAP

From 2015, the Australasian New Car Assessment Pro-gramme (ANCAP) will align its testing protocols with those of the European NCAP.While the physical crash tests

are close to identical, analysis of the resulting data is slightly different. From now, Euro NCAP results will be released in New Zealand and Australia without being reassessed by ANCAP, however they will still carry the

ANCAP brand.

Fewer large cars no barrier to safety says AAWhile big cars didn’t dominate the ANCAP list for 2014, the range of small to medium ve-

hicles with 5-star safety ratings continues to grow according to the New Zealand Automo-bile Association.“The Mazda3, the 2014 New Zealand Car of the Year,

along with the Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Polo and Honda Accord have all been awarded 5-star safety ratings this year, so the New Zealand fleet is becoming safer,” says AA motoring services general manager Stella Stocks.

January 7Swift range revised after ten years at the top

To celebrate the Suzuki Swift achieving a decade of being New Zealand’s top selling light car, the New Zealand distribu-tor has axed two model vari-ants, and dropped the price on

the base model by 5%.The entry-level 1.4-litre GL model now carries a recom-mended retail price of $18,990,

plus on-road costs, for the manual version, and $19,990, plus on-road costs, for the automatic transmission model.

January 8Giant DMS company promises faster technology ‘down under’

The formation of a giant global DMS company – CDK Global, Inc. – has been welcomed by one of the biggest automotive softtware providers in Australa-sia, TSI.

“The formation of CDK, along with the operational autonomy it now has, is espe-cially exciting for those of us in the world’s smaller mar-kets,” says TSI’s group general

manager, Darryn Crothall.

January 13Speeding review requestedPolice Minister Michael Woodhouse has asked Police

to undertake a review of the public messages that under-pinned the 2014/15 summer

road safety campaign.The ‘zero tolerance’ campaign has been widely criticised as taking the focus off safe driving.NZ to get Honda supercarWhile Jazz, Civic and CRV may

lead Honda on volume in New Zealand, the company has confirmed it will have some-thing more interesting as a

halo model next year.Managing director Nobuya Sonada has confirmed today the NSX supercar will be launched here.

January 14Call for review on taxi regulationThe leader of the Act party has called for a review of rules governing taxi-service style apps, such as Uber.The technology has hit the headlines in the last week

with Police stoping and fin-ing Uber drivers for allegedly using their smartphones as taxi meters. At times this has

meant the leaving of passen-gers on the roadside.NZ Hyundai dealers dig in for rally champHyundai WRC works driver Hayden Paddon’s partnership

with Hyundai New Zealand, and its dealer network, has been strengthened with a deal that will support him through the next twelve rallies in his WRC i20 car.

Economist’s theory on imports misses key point – IMVIAA think piece issued by eco-nomics firm Infometrics has been dismissed as ‘completely incorrect’ by the Imported Mo-tor Vehicle Industry Association.The claims by economist

Benje Patterson, say that fur-ther dropping of tariffs from the Japanese-Australian vehi-cle trade could severely affect the New Zealand market for vehicles.

January 15Scrapage rates fall as fleet growsThe number of vehicles leaving

New Zealand’s fleet rose this year – but is still tracking well behind the number entering.According to Turner’s mar-

ket report, a total of 138,805 vehicles left the market last year, up 4% for all of 2013.Fiat Chrysler NZ boss


Due to strong growth over the past 12 months one of

Auckland’s leading vehicle retailers, Buy Right Cars, is

looking for an experienced buyer to join a STRONG VEHICLE PURCHASING TEAM.

The Buyer will be responsible for:

Accountabilities include:

The successful applicant would have/be:

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incorporated into pricing strategy

• Assist in documenting the vehicle testing process• Ensure vehicle purchase prices are always maintained at wholesale market value after taking into account reconditioning/repair costs• Secure vehicle purchasing volumes

• A minimum of 5 years experience as a buyer either in Japan or using contacts in NZ• Honest, trustworthy and hardworking• Ability to analyse and interpret market trends• Strong interpersonal skills• Strong contacts within the NZ dealership market

We need someone who can commit weekdays and half a day on Saturday and the role may involve a few business trips to Japan each year.In return, the successful applicant will be rewarded with a competitive remuneration package and a challenging fast paced environment.

If this role sounds like a good fit, please email

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ANCAP brand.











































PEOPLETALK


eraPower has increased dealership revenue by

%20Contact us to learn how

tinyurl.com/eraPowerNZ09 478 0370

Rick Armstrong is best known for his involve-ment in the new-

car game, with a string of successful franchises that stretch the length of the country.

However, his early days in the industry were dominated by selling used cars and im-porting from overseas.

Armstrong began his career in 1985 as a 19-year-old working for a couple of used-car dealers in Christchurch, before managing a yard.

“I worked there for a few years, learning the ropes and selling cars very successfully as a young guy,” he says.

“I learned a lot about the industry, buying and sell-ing, made some money and managed to hang on to it.”

Eventually the entrepre-neur went out on his own, forming Armstrong Motor Group in 1993, which dealt in used imports.

Armstrong says he parallel imported everything from Subarus to Nissans and Mit-subishis.

“You name it, we were bringing it in.

“Those were the days when new cars were quite expensive in New Zealand.”

But by 2000, Armstrong had swapped importing for the new-car new franchise segment, starting off in his Christchurch home base.

“I just decided the import market was no longer for me. I’m staggered that the import market is still going,” he says.

He had secured several franchises in Christchurch by 2006, including the popular Subaru brand, and had set up a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Dunedin.

In hindsight, he says it was the start of “a nationwide company from the bottom

up”.Once his success in the

south was solidified, Arm-strong made the move north in 2007, setting up Subaru and Peugeot franchises in Wellington.

“It was one of those situ-ations where it is hard to set up there. It is really difficult in any of those smaller centres to set up a business without local knowledge.”

However, Armstrong says the operation has gone from strength to strength.

“Wellington for us is a very, very important region. We have got big market share down there.”

And when the opportunity to buy Auckland City Toyota from the Giltrap Group came about in 2014, he jumped at the chance to move north again.

“I always had the ambition of getting to Auckland. I liked the idea of living here.”

After putting the time into it to establish the business, Armstrong has four Auckland dealerships operating, and another being built in Botany.

“One of the things that has been beneficial throughout is me living in the region and developing the business,” he says.

“You become part of the community. I’ve done that in all of the places I have lived.”

One thing Armstrong has learned after almost two decades in the new-car busi-ness is customers need the whole package, from service to finance, customer experi-ence and parts.

“Selling cars is a part of the business. You want to continue selling them cars and servicing their cars, building that customer base.

“That’s the challenge in the car industry.”

The company, which has

450 employees, is also strongly focused on keeping up with changes in technology.

“It’s happening a damn sight quicker than you want it to. But we are subject to all the information, we know what’s coming when.

“There’s a level of training we are having to put techni-cians and sales staff through which is intensive.

“Technology is changing so much they are almost be-coming IT people in a way.”

Investing in that technol-ogy isn’t cheap, but it does help increase efficiency, he says. “When you check a car in for service, you’re met by a service advisor that’s got an iPad.

“Everything is becoming very operationally efficient, which is exactly what we are looking for. Once upon a

time we had to use a check sheet on a clipboard.”

It is also changing the way people buy cars, with plenty of research that can be done online before even visiting a dealership.

“How we sell to the pub-lic and market to the public is fast changing, but it keeps you on your toes. It gives you a bit of a buzz.”

However, Armstrong is still a believer in physical dealer-

Armstrong’s journey to the top

Rick Armstrong

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PEOPLETALK


New cars provide best value: Armstrong

Those thinking about buying an imported car should

think again, Armstrong Motor Group boss Rick Armstrong says.

“I don’t understand how we can be one of the smallest na-tions in the world, but have one of the biggest number of imports from Japan.”

“The public has been buy-ing these cars at relatively high prices and interest rates.”

Compare that with buying new, which gets the customer a service plan, warranty and brand new tyres, he says.

“It’s safe, there’s nothing to spend for the first few years of ownership, you can buy on low interest rates. I could sit here with a calculator and do the numbers.

“The deals on new ones are so good, it works out cheaper to buy that new one.”

He says the cost of owner-ship is something people need to seriously consider before buying a car of any kind.

Rick Armstrong

Continued from page 9

ships, because “people still like to deal with people they trust”.

Armstrong says the fran-chise side of the market is in-credible at the moment, but he prefers when the market is steady rather than too up or down.

“When the business is growing and being driven by growth, you need bigger fa-cilities at a big cost. When the

market is steady, it’s the best time. You’re not challenged with an upturn or a downturn.”

Armstrong says the car industry is a fantastic one that young people looking for a career should consider getting involved in. “I’ve been in the game all this time and seen a lot of people come and go from the car industry. If you stick at it, it’s been really good to so many people.

“I just think if you’re really

interested, it can be an excit-ing career. If you like it and want to have a bit of fun in work, it’s something people should consider.”

During his downtime, Armstrong takes on the role of proud dad, following his son Marcus’ motor-sport career.

“He’s living up in Europe at the moment on a Ferrari development contract. He will be in pretty good hands over the next few years. He’s

so focused and committed to what he wants.”

While he plans to take a trip to Europe later this year to follow his son’s progress, he doesn’t have to go far to watch him in action right now.

“At the moment he’s in New Zealand doing the Toyota Racing Series. It’s cool having Marcus home.”

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NEWSTALK

Spanish car manufacturer SEAT is returning to the New Zealand market

after an absence of almost two decades.

The Volkswagen subsidiary pulled out of the Australa-sian market in the late 1990s.

However, SEAT New Zealand general man-ager James Yates says now is the right time to return.

There are plans to start in Auckland, with a showroom opening at one of Giltrap Group’s exist-ing dealerships in the second quarter of the year, he says.

“If we can make it work here [in Auckland], we can talk to the rest of the country at a later stage.”

The rise of the SUV seg-ment in New Zealand has encouraged the company to bring two specifications of its Ateca model — the Style and Xcellence — into the country.

“There is growth in SUVs here, and the sporty na-ture of the brand is dif-ferent to what’s already out there,” Yates says.

The Ateca will be joined by the Leon Cupra and Leon FR — two differ-ent versions of the company’s five-

door hatch.Yates says it is likely more

models will be introduced next year.

He says there are a few people that might remember the brand from its first stint

here, but it is generally un-known in New Zealand.

However, he believes peo-ple will be impressed by the quality of the product, which originated in Barcelona.

“We’re not trying to launch a brand from an unknown country or one with low qual-ity perceptions.”

And as for building the brand here, it is hard to quan-tify how long that will take so

early in the piece.“Profile is a hard one to

measure. We’ve got targets.“If we can get a small foot-

hold, I will be pretty happy.”Yates says his team is

working on digital options for showcasing the cars, but get-ting the Auckland showroom up and running is the priority.

Price is still being worked through, but will be competi-tive, he says.

SEAT to launch in New Zealand

SEAT is bringing its Ateca SUV to New Zealand

SEAT New Zealand general manager James Yates

MTF Accelerator on the right foot

Even with the intro-duction of comput-ers, writing loans still

seems to involve a lot of paperwork and signatures.

Automotive financier MTF is working towards taking the time and hassle out of the process, the first step is being its new app — Accelerator.

Accelerator is an iPad app which captures sig-natures and even whole documents. Developed by MTF, the app’s avail-able to all its vehicle dealers and franchises around New Zealand. The speed of uptake has been impressive: from an initial release to five pilot users in March, well over half of all MTF loans are now completely paperless. And, much like the mobile internet banking revolu-tion, users wonder how they managed without it.

To minimise the poten-tial for mistakes and rework involved in documentation, Accelerator can calculate who needs to sign what box, and all the documents required for each type of contract. Signatures are made on the digital con-tract with a special pen, or even the customer’s finger. Required customer

documents and ID are photographed with the iPad camera, and automatically filed with MTF, completing the compliance require-ments. The loan is finished on the iPad, and within two minutes the customer is au-tomatically sent a welcome

email advising that the loan has begun. Custom-ers can access their loan documents at any time by logging into the cus-tomer website.

MTF CEO Glen Todd says: “While a face-to-face relationship with customers is key, we simply couldn’t ignore the potential saving of time, paper and

hassle offered by developing a fully digitally integrat-ed process. MTF vehicle dealers and franchises love the mobil-ity and flexibility

that Accelerator offers, and our customers tell us they appreciate how up-market and convenient it is.”

Todd explains that there were some initial concerns from those dealers wary of new technology, so great care was taken to keep the

app as simple as possible. “As it turns out, the more

traditional dealers had no problem adapting to the new process at all, and have been great ambassa-dors for the software.”

A number of MTF finance providers cover great distances to meet custom-ers, so the flexibility offered by the app has been a real boon. Jacob Gray from Carbase in Dunedin advises that as well as finding the application very easy to use, his customers were “pretty wowed” by being able to sign their contract on an iPad.

People using the Accelerator app

By Simon Hopkins, Solutions Team [email protected]


NEWSTALK

In an age where hybrid and electric vehicles are no longer considered oddities,

and with autonomous ve-hicles on the horizon, the car as we know it is undergoing its most significant transition in 100 years.

It is fitting, then, that 2017 will mark the 100th anniver-sary of the North American Dealer Association (NADA), the United States body for vehicle retailers.

NADA’s suitably elabo-rate annual conference was held in New Orleans, and focussed firmly on the ways we market, sell and service vehicles. Unsurprisingly, that side of the industry is also undergoing its own shift in traditional thinking.

Amid political insanity, seemingly unbridgeable di-vides in equality and — if the streets of New Orleans are any indicator — an ever-pre-sent whiff of pot, Americans generally do know how to treat a customer.

And with more than 17.5 million new vehicles sold in

2016, they certainly know how to move metal.

Along with a small con-tingent of Kiwis, I joined the thousands of attendees at the NADA conference with an eye on learning about new tech-niques to boost dealership enquiry and customer reten-tion, and optimise sales.

We know the US car market is huge, but sometimes it’s hard to fathom just how big it is. It takes something like NADA to put it all in perspec-tive, and within minutes of stepping into the New Orleans convention centre we started to understand the scale of things.

The centre itself is more than a kilometre long, with NADA training workshops filling break-out rooms along about half of that expanse.

Hundreds of individual theatres housed anywhere from 30 to 100 participants in sessions on every aspect of dealership improvement.

And then there was the expo floor, all 31,120 square metres of it, filled with all manner of suppliers from DMS providers to auto-mated car washes, and every conceivable technology to enhance or measure each nuance of a modern car

dealership.With so many interesting

learning modules available, managing the crossover is challenging — you simply can’t attend everything, and of course there’s a risk you’ll miss one really critical work-shop while attending a dud.

As a marketer, I focussed on topics I knew could either dramatically enhance the current strategies and tactics I have in play, or give me insight into emerging trends or technology I can begin to

implement. But I can imagine identify-

ing what to attend would’ve been a nightmare for a dealer principal. Do I go to Stop the Haemorrhaging of Attrition and Increase Sales and Gross by 50%, or Five Strategies to Dominate Your Market? How am I can going to find time for Dealership of Tomorrow — Retail Trends for the Next Decade and Beyond, and still attend Recruiting: To Find the Needle in the Haystack?

So, yes, scheduling at NADA is an issue, but overall there’s enough good content and innovation on display to get a flavour of what we need to be thinking about over the next couple of years.

Looking for a silver bullet? Keep looking. NADA 2017 didn’t throw up any revela-tions you probably haven’t heard about — unless you’re still agonising about the size of the starburst in your print ad, and shooting for a one in six closing ratio — in which case … um … where to start?

Moving metal a fast-changing game


by Steve Vermeulen Marketing manager Nichibo


NEWSTALK

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However, it was reassuring to see our US counterparts validating some of the tactics New Zealand benchmark operators are implement-ing. It should be no surprise that more than 70% of typical dealership enquiries in the States are now triggered from a digital source, and Vehicle Display Pages (VDPs) and website form fills are critical measures.

Content is increasingly important, with the writ-ten word for search engine visibility, but video is also a powerful engagement tool. If you’re putting more attention on these areas, you’re focussing on what a lot of successful dealers in the States are now imple-menting in volume.

I’ve definitely picked up some valuable new meth-odology to more accurately track digital effectiveness, im-prove remarketing and craft more engaging content.

But for me virtual reality

was the one innovation that hinted most at a future selling tool. I sampled a beta version of what eBay Motors sees as the not-too-distant technol-ogy which will help us engage consumers even more.

With a low-cost headset and mobile device a user can now have an immer-sive 3D interior and exte-rior view of a car at home

or in the dealership. A simple wave of the hand al-lows them to peruse specifica-tions, read peer re-views and try different trim levels,

and they can even take a virtual test drive.

A salesperson can see what they’re looking at, and can offer voice prompts to enrich the experience. It doesn’t fulfil that touch-and-feel com-ponent car consumers still find essential but, for early adopters at least, could this be the technology which

finally brings 100% vehicle e-commerce to the fore?

I suspect we’ll see more developments in automotive VR applications coming thick

and fast, both consumer and dealer facing. One thing’s for certain, the next 100 years promise a lot more change to come.


http://www.mta.org.nz


NEWSTALK

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Learning about electric vehicles (EVs) has been a “steep learning curve”

for Andrew Dudley. Genuine Vehicle Import’s

(GVI) EV specialist says he is a convert to the technology after taking on the role four months ago.

“I was all about the combustion engine. Now I’m immersed in the EV culture and technology.”

He is predicting 2017 will be the “Year of the EV” as charging infrastructure con-tinues to be built and people become more concerned about driving a car that is environmentally-friendly.

Dudley’s prediction is certainly proving to be true so far.

January has been his most successful month, breaking double digits for EVs sold for the first time during his tenure at the company.

The most popular model he has sold since starting at GVI is the Nissan Leaf because of its reliability, with BMWs and Mercedes-Benz

some of the other brands in stock.

And he is proud to admit to driving a Leaf to and from work, which is a fantastically smooth ride.

“Electric cars are not wind-up toys. The battery sits quite low, so they are not affected in a gust of wind.”

Not only is the Leaf great during the crawl to work, it also performs well on the race track as Dudley discov-ered at Hampton Downs, pushing it to its limits.

“I put it through its paces. It shows the potential of an EV in a controlled environ-ment.”

More to learn Despite his impressive

success in the EV sector, Dudley says he is a long way from being an expert.

“I’m still researching. That will not stop.

“Basically I have been go-ing cross-eyed looking at a screen for much longer than is healthy.”

Major dealer employs EV sales specialist


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Research also involves travel, with a trip to the UK last year opening Dudley’s eyes up to some of the other EV models on the market.

That includes the Nissan Tekna, which GVI has since imported.

Another trend he has no-ticed is most people buy EVs as a second car.

“They’ve taken that first step. They can see EVs are good for the environ-ment and good for the country.”

In terms of bigger EV cars, Dudley says they are still develop-ing.

“A Nissan e-NV200 is a good option for the EV pur-ists, while a hybrid version of the Mitsubishi Outlander is another solid choice.”

Safety first Dudley says GVI does its

best to make sure custom-ers are educated about the fundamentals before buying an EV.

That includes a free as-sessment for anyone who

buys an EV to make sure charging at home is safe.

Particularly in older homes with ageing switch-boards, upgrades can cost from $300, he says.

“As a retailer, we have to make sure customers are aware of the safety require-ments needed for home charging.

“What they save in fuel the first month often pays for the electricity upgrade.”

EV servic-ing and repairs are also offered by GVI in case customers have any problems, Dudley says.

Specialist field GVI general manager

Hayden Johnston says the company’s used EV sales, which have been develop-ing for more than two years, have grown strongly since Dudley took over.

Selling used EVs re-quires a particular set of skills, which Dudley has developed very quickly, Johnston says.

“Selling EVs is like selling

Continued from page 14 new cars. You’ve got to spend time with people because they have lots of questions.

“They want to confirm

what they have learned. If they don’t have confidence in the person selling, the people won’t buy the vehicle.”

Andrew Dudley

http://www.nykline.com


By David Crawford, CEO of theMotor Industry Association of NZ (Inc).CRAWFORD’S CASE

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INDUSTRYTALK

There’s a saying along the lines of “only two things don’t change —

you pay taxes, and change is a constant”.

This year is a milestone year for me — towards the end of it I will celebrate six decades of existence.

As the New Year rolled on through, I paused to reflect on that.

One of my earliest memo-ries is of my second year at school, listening to the radio in class about the DC3 airplane crash in the Kaimai Ranges. It was and remains the deadliest plane crash on New Zealand soil.

It was the first time in my young life that the realities of a big world outside my im-mediate existence registered in my mind, the beginning of the loss of childhood in-nocence and naivety.

The transition to decimal currency in 1967 looms large in my memory, as well as the first man landing on the moon in July 1969. The ‘70s were some of my favourite years — it was a fun time during which, as a teenager,

I did not have any real re-sponsibilities, and my parents gave me relatively free rein so long as I did my fair share of farm duties.

I remember the long list of cars and other vehicles my father owned as I grew up. In the ‘70s I developed my petrolhead tendencies, a natural result of growing up in a rural community.

In my youth, cars were pretty basic things. You can’t really say that nowadays, and in the next 10 years the level of complexity and sophis-tication will not just evolve, it will radically change. Cars will become easier to drive, but the technology behind this will be anything but easy to design and safely imple-ment.

In the 50 years leading up to 2010, the development focus was on engineering design to protect the oc-cupant should an accident happen.

The development of air-bags, ABS brakes and crum-ple zones combined with laws on mandatory seatbelt wearing all contributed to

the reduction of the rate of road trauma.

But worldwide the rate of accident reduction has slowed. New Zealand is no different, and in recent years the rate of road trauma here has plateaued, and it is currently bouncing up and down.

That could well change in the foreseeable future.

Vehicle manufacturers began to change their re-search focus five or so years ago, from the objective of minimising harm should an accident happen, to saying what if we could stop cars having accidents at all? The benefits of this R&D effort are beginning to play out.

There are two main tech-nological areas vehicle man-ufacturers are pursuing. The first is enabling vehicles to see what’s around them and other vehicles. Often referred to as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, it involves two sets of protocols — one for radar detection, and the other for two-way commu-nications.

The second area is transi-tion from fully manual to fully autonomous driving. The protocols cover a five-stage transition, the idea be-ing that vehicles can detect and respond much more quickly than humans, and make rational decisions.

But those are not the only changes we are seeing. The way vehicles are being pro-pelled is also changing.

Driven by the need to be ever more in sync with the environment that sustains human life, the push to decarbonise transport is very real. Not only decarbonise, but also reduce harmful ex-haust emissions which affect quality of life, mainly in urban areas.

Electric vehicles, low-emission vehicles, fuel cells and other technology are here now, or not that far away from hitting the mar-ket. Some operational and commercialisation issues still need to be resolved.

This rate of change is a lit-tle uncomfortable for some, while others embrace it.

It is not surprising that we have passionate people ei-ther supporting fully autono-mous vehicles, or who don’t want to see it coming. Fully autonomous vehicles are still a little way off, but I have no doubt we will seem them in the foreseeable future.

The real question is, at some point in the future should drivers eventually be banned from driving manual or semi-autonomous vehi-cles? That will be an interest-ing debate, one I am happy to discuss with anyone over a glass of beer. I know which I prefer!

New Year reflections

“Electric vehicles, low- emission vehicles, fuel cells and other technology are here now, or not that far away from hitting the market. Some operational and commercialisation issues still need to be resolved.”

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INDUSTRYTALK

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By Gordon Shaw – chief executive officer – Vehicle Inspection NZ

Most of you reading this article know that the vehicle you drive

on the road in New Zealand is supported by a massive regulatory process which ensures your safety. But how many of your friends, col-leagues, customers and family do?

Most drivers and owners of vehicles have no idea that vehicles in New Zealand are subject to strict safety and inspection stand-ards before they enter the NZ vehicle fleet, and while they are operated on NZ roads.

For example, it is worth considering that a used car imported from Japan is in-spected in Japan (biosecurity and safety) before export, then inspected and complied by approved service pro-viders before the vehicle is able to enter the NZ vehicle fleet, and that’s before it is inspected for its Warrant of Fitness or Certificate of Fit-ness.

The New Zealand inspec-tion supply chain is being used as a benchmark stand-ard by many other regula-tors looking at way to make inspection systems more robust.

I am on an international working group of CITA

citainsp.org — International Motor Inspection Commit-tee — looking at global best practice for port of entry inspections.

The last general assembly of CITA approved the crea-tion of three ad-hoc working

group to create guidelines on new inspection schemes, anti-fraud measures and port-of-entry inspections. These recommendations will be aimed worldwide and used as support for the international stakeholders supporting road safety in developing countries, like UN, WHO, World Bank and multilateral development banks.

With the increasing trade of vehicles both new and used across geographical and country borders it is imperative that there is a set of minimum standards for the inspection of vehicles at port of entry.

The working group also recommends that pre-ship-ment origin inspections are

also important to determine end of life (ELV), and pre-vent further changes to the vehicle on arrival in another country in any attempt to disguise extensive damage not picked up by in-service checks.

The POE AH group agreed on the following principles regarding the recommenda-tion:• Applicable to all kind of

road vehicles• Preference to set up

technical requirements rather than asking for a limit of age

• It is important to retrieve information from the authorities of the country of origin

The working group has used the NZ Entry Certifica-tion and Compliance inspec-tion system as a best practice example, together with the European Union standards. This is a big endorsement that our mature inspection system for used cars enter-ing our fleet is a model that can be used elsewhere, as

it has a total focus on safety outcomes.

Electric vehicle fleet numbers

Just wanted to draw your attention to the latest EV fleet statistics that are posted on the Ministry of Trans-ports website — transport.govt.nz/research/newzea-landvehiclefleetstatistics/monthly-electric-and-hy-brid-light-vehicle-registra-tions-dec-2016/.

For light EV registrations we have had an increase of 418 vehicles between 2015 and 2016. Well done to eve-ryone who is investing in EV ownership.

The towns with the big-gest EV fleets are:

1. Auckland2. Christchurch3. Wellington4. Whangarei5. DunedinIf you have not visited the

MoT’s statistical information, I encourage you to do so. It is a great resource for us all to use.

We all need to spread the word that vehicle safety is our total focus!

YearTotal BEV and PHEV registrations Fleet Size – BEVs

2014 328 255

2015 502 295

2016 1513 713

BEV = battery electric vehiclesPHEV = plug-in hybrid electric vehicles


http://www.jevic.co.nz


MARKETINGTALK

Matt Darby works for AutoPlay, which specialises in Lead Management Tools. Contact AutoPlay on 09 361 1505, or email [email protected] to find out more.

There are many rea-sons a brand/OEM would want to deploy

a consistent lead manage-ment tool across its network. At AutoPlay, we find that one of the key selling points for any brand HQ is the ability to push leads generated from brand marketing activity out to the dealership network, and then track activity and results once the dealerships start working those leads.

For most brands access-ing this information from dealerships is like getting blood out of a stone — not because dealerships want to be difficult, but because without an effective lead management tool the act of compiling, retrieving and translating this data is hugely time consuming.

To date, every person I’ve met in sales or management loves this tool, as it gives them visibility over whether their dealership network is treating their leads with re-spect, and working them to their full potential. Marketing teams love this as well, as it gives them a picture of how successful marketing actions are at ground level — beyond the KPIs of reach, views, clicks or emails generated.

Long story short, it’s al-most always a positive thing. However, raise the idea of this level of tracking with some marketing teams and you may find yourself look-ing at a group of uncomfort-able people — particularly if their media mix is skewed

towards traditional media of TV, newspaper, radio and outdoor advertising. But what is it that would make marketers wary of having ac-cess to market insights?

The answer comes down to sales attribution. Sales at-tribution is the process of at-tributing marketing spend to different marketing activities. Digital marketers commonly will use a method called Last Touch Attribution — essen-tially giving all the credit for

sales to the last action taken. Depending on the industry/product, more often than not this last action comes in the form of an email enquiry, so it suits digital marketers to attribute it to whatever online marketing activity they have conducted.

Conversely, purveyors of traditional media like TV, ra-dio and outdoor will almost always adhere to a model of First Touch Attribution — giv-ing 100% of the credit for the sale to the first event/inter-action the customer had with the brand. I came across a US company called Clarivoy (clarivoy.com) which illus-trated this pretty succinctly with the chart below.

It’s this biased approach that can make marketing teams nervous. In reality

the world is neither black nor white. A whole industry has sprung up with com-panies that espouse Multi-Touch Sales Attribution. This method accepts the fact that customers interact with the brand at many points along their buying journey, and

attributes the credit for sales across multiple touch points.

It encompasses a ho-listic view of both online and offline interactions the customer has had with the brand, in order to truly gauge which marketing activities make a difference and which do not.

So why don’t we all use Multi-Touch Sales Attribu-tion? The simplest answer is that it’s a specialist field. Like DMS providers being good at providing DMS software, and AutoPlay being good at lead management tools, providing data-driven sales attribution requires the technology and knowhow to make sense of the noise.

A quick search on Google will show you countless sales attribution solutions in

the US, and almost none in NZ — but rest assured they will come! So, what can you do in lieu of costly attribu-

tion specialists? The good news is that nothing is per-fect, and multi touch sales attribution is just another effort to make sense of this multi-channel, cluttered media space that we exist within in 2017.

There is no single answer, but the key is not to let one KPI determine all your deci-sions. The SEO experts will tell you everything is a result of organic or paid AdWords. The Third Party Listing site will tell you that all your sales come from its website. The tradi-tional marketers will tell you that the customer wouldn’t have contacted the dealership if they hadn’t first heard your advert on the radio.

All these measurements have value, but over reli-ance on any one KPI will lead you down the garden path. Instead take the insights provided from each analytic and use them to compile a big picture view of what marketing is working for your dealership.

Sales attribution – what activity actually generates sales?




MARKETINGTALK

Peter [email protected] or 021-940 318

January 20, and the inauguration of Don-ald Trump as the 45th

President of The United States of America is now a historic moment of record. The intervening days have provided those who care to partake with comprehensive and at times fascinating me-dia coverage of the admin-istration’s first days in office. As referenced in my January article, ‘expecting the unex-pected’ is the new normal from this President’s office. To date President Trump has proved true to form. “Ameri-ca is great and their national interests such as creating more jobs always comes first”. What is also becoming increasingly apparent is that it will take a strong leader-ship team to reign in Trump’s myopic tendencies.

I’ll continue to track progress on the new US Administration’s first 100 days in office in my next three articles, and in par-ticular any relevant policy announcements that have consequences for the New Zealand economy and our auto market.

It is an interesting parallel to write on the subject of rel-evant dealer website content marketing and the content marketing of Donald Trump in his pre-election and subsequent pre-inauguration period. As we know, Trump

used the medium of Twit-ter to advance his spur-of-the-moment commentaries on all manner of subjects, at times in contradiction of earlier pronouncements.

His continual use of Twit-ter achieved cut through because the content was simple, specific, and often controversial.

His messages via televi-sion, other than the candi-date debates, were often

repetitive sound bites, how-ever, they had the desired effect of resonating with his followers. He knew what he had to say, in what tone, and how to capitalise on his op-ponents’ weaknesses.

There are communication lessons for all of us in what we have witnessed during these US elections. Within the field of content market-ing for any dealer website, the challenge is always that of achieving cut through and creating and posting material that will be of interest to your potential customers. One obviously does not need to embark on a controversial or adversarial line of commu-nication, but a line that cap-

tures and holds the attention of your customer and at the same time achieves higher SEO ranking for your dealer website.

For a dealership seeking to improve their content, the first step is to develop a simple strategy. Decide how best you wish to com-municate, what you wish to communicate, and who will be responsible for maintain-ing the content. PCG — a US

digital marketing group — suggests that “content can take the form of a blog, social media such as Face-book or Twitter or YouTube video.

The primary aim of content marketing being to build trust with your customers and ultimately become a reli-able resource of automotive information for your com-munity.

The end goal of effective content marketing is that by delivering consistent, rel-evant and valuable content to potential customers they will ultimately reward you with business and loyalty. PCG also recommend deal-ers avoid promotional pitch-ing or hard sell, as custom-ers visit websites and social media pages for insightful information about a busi-ness’s expertise.

In order to gain an un-

derstanding of how dealers undertake their content mar-keting, I completed a simple website content marketing comparison between three large-volume common-brand franchise dealerships in Auck-land, Sydney and Los Angeles, nine dealer websites in total.

Content marketing infor-mation within the six trans-Tasman dealer websites compared to their US fran-chised equivalents was low in volume, and my anecdo-tal takeout was there did not appear to be a developed marketing strategy as to the type and formatting of the content set out within their respective six websites. The three Sydney websites were marginally ahead, both in the volume of their content and their use of customer testimonial comments.

Of the three Los Angeles dealer websites the standout was Longo Toyota (Penske ownership), which is Toyota’s largest-volume dealership in the world, and which has been the top-selling US Toyota dealer for the past 48 years. When a dealership is this large one can readily understand why its content management is comprehen-sive. All the LA Dealers also facilitate customer Dealer Rater and Yelp reviews as a component of their content. To explore Longo’s site visit longotoyota.com.

The relevance of content marketing for a dealer website



FEBRUARY 2017

ADVANTAGE

WHAT DO WE DO?

Advice and advocacy for the used vehicle industryIf you have technical questions, compliance problems, consumer complaints, staff issues – we can help!

Health and Safety

Are you prepared for the new Health and Safety framework?

By 2020, the Government aims to achieve a 25% reduction in workplace injuries.

New rules to achieve this goal were introduced on April 4. Are you ready?

The IMVIA is here to help, with industry-ready Procedures Kits for workshops, car yards and compliance shops – developed in conjunction with experts HRtoolkit.

For more information, contact:Malcolm Yorston, Technical Services Manageron 0800 046 842 or DDI 09 573 3243Email: [email protected]

The motor vehicle industry stands to be affected by proposed changes to anti-money launder-

ing and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws, specifically covering transaction reporting.

Phase 1 of the AML/CFT laws came into effect in 2013, covering various financial services and casinos. Phase 2, which the Government aims to pass by mid-2017, will extend the laws to cover real estate agents, many lawyers, ac-countants, and some additional gam-bling operators and businesses that trade

in high-value goods such as cars, boats, jewellery, bullion, art and antiquities.

Evidence shows these businesses are at high risk of being targeted by criminals to launder money.

Under the proposed change, busi-nesses trading in certain high-value goods would be required to:• verify customers’ identities (that is,

carry out customer due diligence or CDD) when they receive cash in a single transaction (or a series of related transactions) of $15,000 or more;

• report cash transactions of $15,000 or more to the Police Financial Intel-ligence Unit;

• keep certain records; and• if requested by an AML/CFT supervi-

sor, audit its compliance obligations.The IMVIA, as the industry associa-

tion for the import of used vehicles, has made a submission to the Ministry of Justice outlining the preferred appli-cation of these laws for its membership.

Following consultation with members, the IMVIA has taken the position that Reg-istered Motor Vehicle Traders (RMVTs) can avoid the requirements to register under the new Act, by utilising channels and procedures already in place. RMVTs offered cash for a major purchase will likely take a deposit which is below the given threshold, and then send the customer to a bank to exchange the balance of the cash for a bank cheque. This allows the RMVT to secure the business by taking the deposit, and then utilises the bank’s existing AML/CFT compliance processes to manage the

rest of the transaction.“Because of the likely requirements

for registration, very few RMVTs will individually register,” says IMVIA Policy Analyst Kit Wilkerson. “We recommend that this option remains available to businesses that decide to avail them-selves of well-established existing sys-tems related to AML/CFT, as opposed to having to assume the costs of compli-ance of individual registration.”

“We do not think this behaviour will be limited to RMVTs.”

The IMVIA further noted in its sub-mission that the government might consider a policy that encourages all large sum transactions, for all goods or services, to go through banks – as their systems are already in place and fall within their core area of expertise.

“Discussions with our members have identified the burden on the retail cus-

tomer as one of our industry’s greatest concerns,” says IMVIA Technical Manager Malcolm Yorston. “It is very important to re-member that these restrictions are likely not just oner-ous for businesses,

but also inconvenient for the customer and can potentially be barriers to trade. Customers will use the path of least resistance, or potentially not buy at all.”

The IMVIA thus emphasises that education is the key. With anectodal evidence suggesting that many retail customers currently withdraw large sums of cash from the bank for a major purchase, this behaviour could easily be discouraged by proper information and education.

The fight against money launderingMotor traders to play new role under revised legislation

Advice and advocacy for the used vehicle industry

PARTNERS AND SPONSORS

Advice and advocacy for the used vehicle industryIf you have technical questions, compliance problems, consumer complaints, staff issues – we can help!


Vinsen’s ViewThe monthly report from IMVIA chief executive, David Vinsen

These days, when we pick up our smartphone to check what time our parcel was delivered, or how

far away our pizza is, some of us do still stop and wonder at the conve-nience of it all.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that we lived our lives with access to far less information. Paper map books were out of date within weeks, and anything that you couldn’t find out at the library or research for yourself was destined to remain a mystery.

Now, of course, we don’t think twice about Googling the PM’s most recent speeches or relying on our navigation devices to guide us across a new part of town. With the advent of large-scale access to GPS – and the rapid rise of mobile phones as computers – we can be instantly connected to almost anyone and, increasingly, anything.

The internet of thingsOnce enough people had smart-

phones and GPS technology was within reach, it didn’t take long for the first mass market businesses to start harnessing the benefits. Many apps that you download for your phone will now require you to share your loca-tion. As well as willingly being tracked ourselves, objects like fleet vehicles, our air conditioners and even our gar-den sprinkler systems are increasingly connected and intelligent.

Of course, this technology has

much wider implications in the future of automation and intelligent transport systems. Already, it is reaching New Zealand’s imported vehicle industry in a much more immediate way, with many of the IMVIA’s members and their service providers now starting to harness the benefits of GPS technol-ogy in their business.

The days of packing cars off to sea and crossing our fingers until they ar-rive (ideally) 9000km away will soon be behind us, as the new generation of track and trace technology comes to our vehicles and our smartphones.

New app now liveOne company leading the charge

is Jacanna Customs and Freight (Jacanna), a freight forwarding and customers brokerage with a specialty in vehicle transport and logistics.

Jacanna has recently launched a global tracking system and app de-signed in a joint venture with Japan Forwarding Agency (JFA). Their new Global Tracking System (GTS) can track a vehicle wherever it may be in the supply chain.

During its pre-export inspection by JFA, the vehicle is fitted with a GTS tracking device, which can then be tracked at any point between inspec-tion in Japan and sale in New Zealand. Once the dealer has downloaded the app or logged into a secure website, they can input the VIN and locate their vehicle, highlighted on a map,

Keep track, if you want to keep up

in an instant. There will be no more guesswork on the part of shipping or logistics companies when locating a particular vehicle. Dealers will be able to see for themselves its exact loca-tion, whether it’s on the water, in com-pliance or on its way to the yard.

It will be up to the dealer to de-cide when the tracking device gets switched off; if they choose to keep GTS on the vehicle until the sale is complete, it will continue to provide real time tracking of where the car is, whether on the yard or being test driven.

The use of tracking apps will revo-lutionise real-time information in the hands of dealers, and the way vehicles can be tracked. It will also bring a new level of transparency to the activities of service providers! Customers will know exactly when their vehicle has left Japan, when it arrives in New Zealand, when and where it is offloaded, when it will be picked up for transporting locally, where it is in its compliance process and where and when it will be delivered.

With this innovation, say its pro-ponents, no cars should ever be lost again.

A win-win situation While Jacanna has been first out of

the blocks with this locally, I have it on good authority that other players are not far behind.

This will continue to be an area of hot competition in 2017 and beyond, as the benefits continue to reveal themselves across every point in the supply chain.

This is an exciting development – one which is certain to spark huge leaps in our efficiency and ultimately, delivery to our customers. The race for new technology is one that, in the larger sense, we all win – through sharper service standards and ever more detailed, real-time information at our fingertips.

Track and trace technology arrives in vehicle import industry


F&ITALK

“Providing confidence for the road ahead for over 25 years.”

www.autosure.co.nz / 0800 267 873

WE ARE NOT THE MARKET LEADERS BY LUCK...

Last year we managed over

• 30,000 claims

• 5,000 mobile assessments

• 170,000 phone calls with your customers

If customer satisfaction and retention is important to you

CALL US TODAY!

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Franchise October November DecemberFinance 39% 41% 43%

MBI 46% 48% 48%PPI 11% 11% 10%GAP 29% 31% 33%MVI 13% 14% 16%

Used/ Import October November DecemberFinance 39% 40% 41%

MBI 46% 49% 51%PPI 12% 11% 13%GAP 28% 29% 31%MVI 33% 32% 32%

October November DecemberFranchise $941 $952 $963

Used/Import $1,209 $1,234 $1,258

December was a great month for the F&I sector of the auto

industry – with both used/import and franchised deal-ers ending the year on a high note.

Used/import dealers showed a net average in-come per retail vehicle sold of $1258 – the best figures in the past five months.

Franchise dealers also had the best result since August, netting an average $963 per retail unit sold.

Penetration of 43% for finance was achieved by franchise dealers, the best in four months, while used/import dealers hit 41% - the best figure in five months.

Sales of mechanical breakdown policies also hit new highs, with used/import dealers reaching 51% pene-tration – the first time in five months that the 50% mark was exceeded. Franchise dealers hit 48% to equal the figure for November, again the best in five months.

GAP insurance sales hit 33% for franchise dealers and

31% for used/import dealers, the highest figure in recent months.

Sales of Payment Protec-tion Insurance (PPI) at 13% for used/import dealers was the highest in five months, with franchise dealers hitting only 10%, the lowest in four months.

Franchise dealers did better with motor vehicle insurance sales, at 16%, the highest penetration rate in four months. Used/import dealers achived a much better penetration rate with double the franchise figure at 32%.

However, this equalled November’s figure but was down on recent months.

Highs hit in December for F&I sales


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F&ITALK

Selling has been described as a transfer of feel-ings from one person to

another to create trust. If you trust the person that’s selling to you, you might buy, but if you don’t trust them, no matter how good their product or service may sound, you’ll never buy — and that’s how it is for your customers.

The motor industry in which we operate is fast-paced and constantly chang-ing, and to compete at our best we have to be on top of our game.

In the F&I office, not only are we facing the traditional competition from banks, other lending institutions and insurers (tar-geting your customers to sell the types of products you are selling them), but regulation is also increasing, and customers are better educated and keep up-to-date with the use of mobile devices and the internet to empower them and to chal-lenge you.

Then there are the compli-ance requirements which are eating into our F&I delivery process, and forcing us to try to sell more in less time. So, we have to be better prepared. It’s no different in business than it is in sport.

Planning and preparation are the first and most impor-tant stages in the success of any activity. You don’t have to be the most intelligent person, the silver-tongued lizard, the best looking or most charis-matic, you just have to be the most prepared. Prepare for every customer, for every situa-tion and every outcome. The key is preparation — the battle is won or lost before it begins.

It’s important you posi-tion yourself to have as much

information as you can before a customer is turned over to you by the sales team. Oh, did I mention T/O— that’s another subject for another day.• You need to know your busi-

ness, your product knowl-edge, and have practiced and tuned your sales skills to sell with confidence, anticipate and overcome customer objections

• You need to know your customer, and as much as you can gather about them, their current vehicle, and the vehicle they are purchasing

(make it your business to find out before they enter your office). • You need to set the

stage to ensure you and your office are set up and ready to impress the customer

• You need to have all the information you require at your fingertips to ensure a smooth sales process, in-cluding appropriate sales aids to help reinforce the value of the products. In saying this I recommend you avoid having your office cluttered with brochures and posters on every product. Remember the purchase of a motor ve-hicle, whilst exciting, can also be a stressful time for a cus-tomer, and they don’t want to feel that they’re being led out of one sales process into another, so just have them available for you to reference them.Every two months Provident

Insurance runs an F&I Seminar in some region of the country. Next month (February 23/24) it’s in Christchurch. We still have some spaces available, so if you’re interested in learn-ing more and maximising F&I profits, call me on 021 947 752 to reserve your place.

Preparing to Win

By Steve Owens of Provident Insurance

http://www.providentinsurance.co.nz

NEW VEHICLES

AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 25 AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 25

TOP 10 USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MODELS

MAKE MODELYTD

'16MAKE MODEL

YTD

'15TOYOTA HIACE 3742 TOYOTA HIACE 3040NISSAN CARAVAN 938 NISSAN CARAVAN 721MAZDA BONGO 628 MAZDA BONGO 389NISSAN VANETTE 485 TOYOTA DYNA 336NISSAN NV200 398 NISSAN VANETTE 333TOYOTA REGIUS 369 TOYOTA REGIUS 313ISUZU ELF 344 ISUZU ELF 239TOYOTA DYNA 341 NISSAN NV200 211NISSAN ATLAS 215 TOYOTA TOYOACE 210FIAT DUCATO 213 MITSUBISHI CANTER 192

TOP 20 USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES

MAKE YTD '16YTD '15

Movement % ChangeMarket

Share

TOYOTA 4997 4220 18.4 45.6NISSAN 2413 1699 42.0 22.0MAZDA 781 503 55.3 7.1ISUZU 554 390 42.1 5.1FORD 391 313 Up 1 24.9 3.6MITSUBISHI 378 341 Down 1 10.9 3.4HINO 229 227 0.9 2.1FIAT 220 159 Up 2 38.4 2.0HOLDEN 219 169 29.6 2.0CHEVROLET 198 224 Down 2 -11.6 1.8VOLKSWAGEN 81 79 2.5 0.7DODGE 62 57 8.8 0.6GMC 44 45 -2.2 0.4SUZUKI 43 32 Up 2 34.4 0.4MERCEDES-BENZ 40 37 8.1 0.4SSANGYONG 30 23 Up 1 30.4 0.3KENWORTH 28 39 Down 3 -28.2 0.3GREAT WALL 22 11 Up 10 100.0 0.2VOLVO 19 19 Up 3 0.0 0.2IVECO 18 17 Up 4 5.9 0.2OTHER 201 233 -13.7 1.8TOTAL 10968 8837 24.1 100.0

AROUND THE COUNTRY

DISTRICTYTD '16

YTD '15

% CHANGE

WHA 3317 3041 9.08AUC 73387 71211 3.06HAM 9612 9309 3.25THA 1111 937 18.57TAU 6255 6067 3.10ROT 1646 1354 21.57GIS 691 554 24.73NAP 3215 2767 16.19NEW 2254 2234 0.90WAN 934 896 4.24PAL 3806 3620 5.14MAS 875 685 27.74WEL 11396 11163 2.09NEL 2812 2464 14.12BLE 708 616 14.94GRE 462 464 -0.43WES 123 129 -4.65CHR 19000 18832 0.89TIM 1229 1151 6.78OAM 290 323 -10.22DUN 4624 4056 14.00INV 1779 1682 5.77TOTAL 149526 143642 4.10

USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES – 2016

CH

EV

RO

LET

DO

DG

E

FIA

T

FOR

D

HIN

O

HO

LDE

N

ISU

ZU

MA

ZD

A

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

NIS

SAN

TO

YO

TA

VO

LKSW

AG

EN

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

16-Jan 16 5 13 18 9 11 25 35 33 158 338 7 27 69515-Jan 15 3 12 17 18 9 28 43 18 130 311 6 64 644

% diff 7 67 8 6 -50 22 -11 -19 83 22 9 17 -58 816-Feb 14 4 6 26 14 14 38 45 33 159 354 10 28 74515-Feb 12 2 9 24 13 8 22 34 24 132 360 7 34 681

% diff 17 100 -33 8 8 75 73 32 38 20 -2 43 -18 916-Mar 14 4 6 26 14 14 38 45 33 159 354 10 28 74515-Mar 12 5 8 22 33 18 35 44 30 147 395 4 32 785

% diff 17 -20 -25 18 -58 -22 9 2 10 8 -10 150 -13 -516-Apr 14 4 0 32 13 17 41 52 26 198 391 6 32 82615-Apr 15 3 5 24 13 7 38 36 25 140 378 4 49 737

% diff -7 33 -100 33 0 143 8 44 4 41 3 50 -35 1216-May 14 3 4 29 20 13 50 65 32 176 430 8 40 88415-May 30 3 5 30 19 21 27 32 44 138 361 8 24 742

% diff -53 0 -20 -3 5 -38 85 103 -27 28 19 0 67 1916-Jun 14 8 4 26 20 16 48 60 26 201 400 7 34 86415-Jun 12 4 3 24 22 17 29 37 29 135 355 2 21 690

% diff 17 100 33 8 -9 -6 66 62 -10 49 13 250 62 2516-Jul 17 7 4 30 10 19 50 57 28 234 438 5 33 93215-Jul 22 11 3 26 28 16 37 51 43 139 384 4 42 806% diff -23 -36 33 15 -64 19 35 12 -35 68 14 25 -21 16

16-Aug 21 3 4 39 30 17 44 76 32 213 482 3 27 100215-Aug 27 4 3 24 18 15 32 48 23 144 342 7 48 735

% diff -22 -25 33 63 67 13 38 58 39 48 41 -57 -44 3616-Sep 13 6 8 32 19 24 46 67 45 218 435 7 44 96415-Sep 22 6 7 26 15 17 40 39 21 171 344 9 42 759

% diff -41 0 14 23 27 41 15 72 114 27 26 -22 5 2716-Oct 16 5 13 40 13 25 61 82 23 225 428 5 38 97415-Oct 16 2 17 17 11 11 21 57 31 124 378 9 42 736

% diff 0 150 -24 135 18 127 190 44 -26 81 13 -44 -10 3216-Nov 18 6 84 34 33 25 54 93 31 240 474 8 44 114415-Nov 18 4 38 31 17 17 29 46 36 153 341 11 51 792

% diff 0 50 121 10 94 47 86 102 -14 57 39 -27 -14 4416-Dec 26 5 72 55 22 21 51 86 42 203 396 10 57 104615-Dec 16 10 45 48 20 13 52 36 17 146 272 8 48 731

% diff 63 -50 60 15 10 62 -2 139 147 39 46 25 19 43YTD 16 197 60 218 387 217 216 546 763 384 2384 4920 86 432 10821YTD 15 217 57 155 313 227 169 390 503 341 1699 4221 79 497 8838

%diff -9 5 41 24 -4 28 40 52 13 40 17 9 -13 22

2016 MARKET QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

www.autohub.co

GLOBAL VEHICLE LOGISTICS NZ · JAPAN · AUSTRALIA · UK · EUROPE · SINGAPORE · | www.autohub.co



All the used vehicle

stats for the 2016 year



NEW VEHICLES

26 | AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz 26 | AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz

TOP 10 USED IMPORT PASSENGER MODELSMAKE MODEL

YTD '16

MAKE MODELYTD '15

NISSAN TIIDA 7529 SUZUKI SWIFT 7083

TOYOTA COROLLA 7358 MAZDA AXELA 6682

MAZDA AXELA 6639 NISSAN TIIDA 6609

SUZUKI SWIFT 6283 MAZDA DEMIO 5985

MAZDA DEMIO 5529 TOYOTA COROLLA 5897

HONDA FIT 5316 HONDA FIT 5509

TOYOTA WISH 3754 SUBARU LEGACY 4204

SUBARU LEGACY 3433 TOYOTA WISH 3498

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 3387 MAZDA ATENZA 3473

TOYOTA VITZ 3208 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 3323

TOP 20 USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES

MAKE YTD '16 YTD '15 Movement%

Change

Market

ShareTOYOTA 37557 32649 15.0 25.1NISSAN 28145 25188 11.7 18.8MAZDA 22663 23563 -3.8 15.2HONDA 15474 15265 1.4 10.3SUZUKI 7535 8454 -10.9 5.0SUBARU 7074 7908 -10.5 4.7BMW 6121 6309 -3.0 4.1VOLKSWAGEN 5612 5381 4.3 3.8MITSUBISHI 5249 5353 -1.9 3.5MERCEDES-BENZ 2920 2683 Up 1 8.8 2.0AUDI 2748 2799 Down 1 -1.8 1.8FORD 1589 1639 -3.1 1.1VOLVO 1034 935 10.6 0.7LEXUS 683 615 Up 1 11.1 0.5HOLDEN 529 449 Up 3 17.8 0.4CHEVROLET 524 621 Down 2 -15.6 0.4JAGUAR 464 448 Up 2 3.6 0.3HYUNDAI 462 476 Down 1 -2.9 0.3MINI 462 557 Down 3 -17.1 0.3LAND ROVER 397 423 -6.1 0.3OTHER 2284 1927 18.5 1.5TOTAL 149526 143642 4.1 100.0

USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES – 2016

AU

DI

BM

W

CH

EV

RO

LET

DA

IHA

TSU

FOR

D

HO

LDE

N

HO

ND

A

HY

UN

DA

I

MA

ZD

A

ME

RC

ED

ES

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

NIS

SAN

PE

UG

EO

T

SUB

AR

U

SUZ

UK

I

TO

YO

TA

VW

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

16-Jan 224 470 61 13 131 48 1324 44 1859 208 404 2075 17 558 679 2794 421 345 1167515-Jan 220 472 60 20 173 32 1160 59 1992 229 511 2012 24 618 775 2648 420 366 11791

% diff 2 0 2 -35 -24 50 14 -25 -7 -9 -21 3 -29 -10 -12 6 0 -6 -116-Feb 211 469 58 8 144 33 1255 41 1862 203 385 2143 16 630 676 2760 473 369 1173615-Feb 190 475 81 18 169 30 1120 38 1678 200 388 1779 18 561 684 2414 403 326 10572

% diff 11 -1 -28 -56 -15 10 12 8 11 2 -1 20 -11 12 -1 14 17 13 1116-Mar 241 470 51 10 129 42 1369 40 1796 230 422 2240 20 593 657 2910 489 444 1215315-Mar 276 585 58 12 167 29 1240 54 1942 250 479 2076 25 655 772 2804 486 403 12313

% diff -13 -20 -12 -17 -23 45 10 -26 -8 -8 -12 8 -20 -9 -15 4 1 10 -116-Apr 240 497 32 13 151 47 1218 43 1847 239 431 2357 18 555 646 2978 468 360 1214015-Apr 246 527 67 13 138 47 1179 34 1805 227 431 1753 18 605 653 2468 448 379 11038

% diff -2 -6 -52 0 9 0 3 26 2 5 0 34 0 -8 -1 21 4 -5 1016-May 222 542 44 7 151 46 1267 50 1895 242 438 2429 23 579 628 3103 511 390 1256715-May 253 599 56 10 153 33 1391 36 1989 264 427 2106 15 739 736 2721 495 392 12415

% diff -12 -10 -21 -30 -1 39 -9 39 -5 -8 3 15 53 -22 -15 14 3 -1 116-Jun 221 503 35 17 120 25 1227 43 1735 246 484 2252 13 579 633 3007 459 392 1199115-Jun 286 585 40 16 105 36 1403 28 2048 258 482 2132 14 677 711 2746 484 364 12415

% diff -23 -14 -13 6 14 -31 -13 54 -15 -5 0 6 -7 -14 -11 10 -5 8 -316-Jul 220 543 31 7 120 36 1381 53 1961 243 467 2540 17 599 639 3260 525 413 1305515-Jul 269 629 45 23 150 40 1422 31 2219 281 519 2453 22 797 850 3152 527 462 13891% diff -18 -14 -31 -70 -20 -10 -3 71 -12 -14 -10 4 -23 -25 -25 3 0 -11 -6

16-Aug 237 561 44 18 116 38 1327 33 1974 272 461 2408 22 592 674 3267 508 440 1299815-Aug 255 588 51 26 121 41 1198 30 1962 213 446 2136 14 694 746 2725 446 369 12061

% diff -7 -5 -14 -31 -4 -7 11 10 1 28 3 13 57 -15 -10 20 14 19 816-Sep 259 528 42 15 130 58 1267 21 1902 261 426 2288 8 609 624 3261 457 408 1256415-Sep 217 526 46 11 116 43 1261 41 1876 199 388 2057 22 650 651 2745 445 373 11667

% diff 19 0 -9 36 12 35 0 -49 1 31 10 11 -64 -6 -4 19 3 9 816-Oct 219 502 33 14 116 47 1282 32 1943 268 465 2355 14 615 580 3324 470 430 1270915-Oct 200 459 34 23 112 36 1261 40 1867 189 394 1940 21 647 632 2565 391 338 11149

% diff 10 9 -3 -39 4 31 2 -20 4 42 18 21 -33 -5 -8 30 20 27 1416-Nov 240 517 44 15 150 52 1261 28 1914 233 417 2494 11 593 523 3373 436 461 1276215-Nov 186 429 41 21 112 38 1321 40 2015 179 407 2168 12 598 653 2793 398 321 11732

% diff 29 21 7 -29 34 37 -5 -30 -5 30 2 15 -8 -1 -20 21 10 44 916-Dec 214 519 49 11 131 57 1296 34 1975 275 449 2564 16 572 576 3520 395 528 1318115-Dec 201 435 42 11 123 44 1309 45 2170 194 481 2576 20 667 591 2868 438 383 12598

% diff 6 19 17 0 7 30 -1 -24 -9 42 -7 0 -20 -14 -3 23 -10 38 5YTD 16 2748 6121 524 148 1589 529 15474 462 22663 2920 5249 26002 195 7074 7535 37557 5612 4980 149531YTD 15 2799 6309 621 204 1639 449 15265 476 23563 2683 5353 25188 225 7908 8454 32649 5381 4476 143642

%diff -2 -3 -16 -27 -3 18 1 -3 -4 9 -2 3 -13 -11 -11 15 4 11 4

www.autohub.co

GLOBAL VEHICLE LOGISTICS NZ · JAPAN · AUSTRALIA · UK · EUROPE · SINGAPORE · | www.autohub.co






USED VEHICLES

AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 27 AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 27

TOP 10 NEW COMMERCIAL MODELS

MAKE MODELYTD

'16MAKE MODEL

YTD

'15

FORD RANGER 8485 FORD RANGER 6832TOYOTA HILUX 6191 TOYOTA HILUX 5632HOLDEN COLORADO 3751 HOLDEN COLORADO 3594

MITSUBISHI TRITON 3186 NISSAN NAVARA 3147

NISSAN NAVARA 3096 TOYOTA HIACE 2496

TOYOTA HIACE 2601 MITSUBISHI TRITON 2432

ISUZU D-MAX 2387 ISUZU D-MAX 1699

MAZDA BT-50 1819 MAZDA BT-50 1382

HYUNDAI ILOAD 1009 FORD TRANSIT 887

SSANGYONG ACTYON SPORT 903 VOLKSWAGEN AMAROK 826

TOP 20 NEW COMMERCIAL MAKES (UNDER 3500KG)

MAKE YTD '16 YTD '15 Movement% Change

Market Share

FORD 9313 7768 Up 1 19.9 21.0TOYOTA 8920 8389 Down 1 6.3 20.2HOLDEN 3974 3781 5.1 9.0

ISUZU 3640 2820 Up 1 29.1 8.2

MITSUBISHI 3189 2504 Up 1 27.4 7.2NISSAN 3096 3147 Down 2 -1.6 7.0MAZDA 1819 1382 31.6 4.1VOLKSWAGEN 1203 1273 -5.5 2.7HYUNDAI 1058 662 Up 4 59.8 2.4LDV 972 473 Up 6 105.5 2.2MERCEDES-BENZ 957 881 Down 2 8.6 2.2SSANGYONG 903 687 Down 1 31.4 2.0FIAT 827 664 Down 1 24.5 1.9HINO 641 660 -2.9 1.4FOTON 571 534 6.9 1.3MITSUBISHI FUSO 508 753 Down 6 -32.5 1.1FACTORY BUILT 349 62 Up 14 462.9 0.8VOLVO 248 243 Down 1 2.1 0.6UD TRUCKS 247 262 Down 1 -5.7 0.6MAN 242 172 Up 3 40.7 0.5OTHER 1579 2028 -22.1 3.6TOTAL 44256 39145 13.1 100.0

NEW AROUND THE COUNTRY

DIS

TR

ICT

YT

D '1

6

YT

D '1

5

%

CH

AN

GE

WHA 2065 1939 6.50

AUC 47149 44857 5.11HAM 6636 5799 14.43THA 814 667 22.04TAU 3964 3470 14.24ROT 1038 1080 -3.89GIS 467 410 13.90NAP 2455 2277 7.82NEW 1629 1592 2.32WAN 796 713 11.64PAL 2635 2490 5.82MAS 728 606 20.13WEL 8080 7418 8.92NEL 1183 1103 7.25BLE 662 635 4.25GRE 180 214 -15.89WES 30 45 -33.33CHR 16945 15110 12.14TIM 792 699 13.30OAM 204 222 -8.11DUN 2862 2589 10.54INV 1330 1162 14.46TOTAL 102644 95097 7.94

NEW COMMERCIAL MAKES (UNDER 3500KG)

FIA

T

FOR

D

FOT

ON

GR

EA

T W

ALL

HIN

O

HO

LDE

N

HY

UN

DA

I

ISU

ZU

LDV

MA

ZD

A

MER

CED

ES-B

ENZ

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

MIT

SUBI

SHI

FUSO

NIS

SAN

SSA

NG

YO

NG

TO

YO

TA

VOLK

SWAG

EN

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

16-Jan 70 699 55 5 38 280 53 214 62 106 56 192 27 231 89 469 117 231 2994

15-Jan 60 504 43 68 43 239 67 176 40 85 31 122 37 254 3 468 139 278 2657

% diff 17 39 28 -93 -12 17 -21 22 55 25 81 57 -27 -9 2867 0 -16 -17 13

16-Feb 41 662 47 2 32 249 67 215 82 115 41 288 25 22 78 644 102 412 3124

15-Feb 26 463 40 47 40 206 55 202 35 111 35 210 37 266 72 647 113 216 2821

% diff 58 43 18 -96 -20 21 22 6 134 4 17 37 -32 -92 8 0 -10 91 11

16-Mar 42 752 85 8 48 284 76 318 41 151 53 462 50 234 96 851 124 244 3919

15-Mar 53 629 51 40 61 357 86 246 38 123 44 326 58 280 67 818 136 267 3680

% diff -21 20 67 -80 -21 -20 -12 29 8 23 20 42 -14 -16 43 4 -9 -9 6

16-Apr 43 580 26 0 73 240 69 275 71 126 37 168 45 327 59 768 86 157 3150

15-Apr 36 566 38 49 41 263 49 220 25 84 44 160 51 347 36 620 99 188 2916

% diff 19 2 -32 -100 78 -9 41 25 184 50 -16 5 -12 -6 64 24 -13 -16 8

16-May 42 814 28 0 51 411 77 281 92 183 47 246 49 194 66 788 104 205 3678

15-May 38 568 33 32 69 327 35 235 44 106 45 192 57 385 62 646 120 197 3191

% diff 11 43 -15 -100 -26 26 120 20 109 73 4 28 -14 -50 6 22 -13 4 15

16-Jun 45 882 38 0 73 431 98 393 83 183 57 328 36 303 88 1097 150 228 4513

15-Jun 33 810 56 42 56 503 51 310 47 210 45 234 61 353 73 771 136 217 4008

% diff 36 9 -32 -100 30 -14 92 27 77 -13 27 40 -41 -14 21 42 10 5 13

16-Jul 75 972 37 0 79 317 129 345 93 208 76 206 36 254 80 703 76 180 3866

15-Jul 49 529 39 38 56 325 63 253 45 147 62 191 47 238 63 677 97 175 3094

% diff 53 84 -5 -100 41 -2 105 36 107 41 23 8 -23 7 27 4 -22 3 25

16-Aug 97 861 42 0 58 283 80 338 70 129 139 231 75 273 86 739 73 206 3780

15-Aug 60 813 34 44 67 295 60 269 39 95 100 177 60 185 52 791 108 192 3441

% diff 62 6 24 -100 -13 -4 33 26 79 36 39 31 25 48 65 -7 -32 7 10

16-Sep 142 835 72 0 61 439 89 326 67 192 124 354 58 284 49 730 108 250 4180

15-Sep 92 831 53 18 60 334 39 273 35 90 118 225 83 200 54 847 113 173 3638

% diff 54 0 36 -100 2 31 128 19 91 113 5 57 -30 42 -9 -14 -4 45 15

16-Oct 89 839 61 0 61 376 93 288 85 155 114 197 39 298 74 819 92 234 3914

15-Oct 98 628 42 16 57 313 48 196 27 121 107 245 54 210 38 583 63 206 3052

% diff -9 34 45 -100 7 20 94 47 215 28 7 -20 -28 42 95 40 46 14 28

16-Nov 79 839 46 1 37 410 117 356 121 137 129 263 45 231 67 739 98 303 4018

15-Nov 62 769 51 19 49 290 76 183 26 112 132 253 86 218 47 901 83 154 3511

% diff 27 9 -10 -95 -24 41 54 95 365 22 -2 4 -48 6 43 -18 18 97 14

16-Dec 62 578 34 2 30 254 110 291 105 134 84 254 23 247 71 573 73 231 3156

15-Dec 57 659 54 12 61 329 33 256 72 98 117 169 122 211 50 620 66 150 3136

% diff 9 -12 -37 -83 -51 -23 233 14 46 37 -28 50 -81 17 42 -8 11 54 1

YTD 16 827 9313 571 18 641 3974 1058 3640 972 1819 957 3189 508 2898 903 8920 1203 2881 44292

YTD 15 664 7769 534 425 660 3781 662 2819 473 1382 880 2504 753 3147 617 8389 1273 2413 39145

%diff 25 20 7 -96 -3 5 60 29 105 32 9 27 -33 -8 46 6 -5 19 13


All the new vehicle stats for the 2016 year

USED VEHICLES

28 | AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz 28 | AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz

NEW PASSENGER MAKES

ALF

A R

OM

EO

AU

DI

BM

W

CH

ER

Y

CH

RY

SLE

R

DO

DG

E

FOR

D

GR

EA

T W

ALL

HO

LDE

N

HO

ND

A

HY

UN

DA

I

JEE

P

KIA

LAN

D R

OV

ER

LEX

US

MA

ZD

A

MER

CED

ES-B

ENZ

MIN

I

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

NIS

SAN

PE

UG

EO

T

PO

RSC

HE

SKO

DA

SSA

NG

YO

NG

SUB

AR

U

SUZ

UK

I

TO

YO

TA

VO

LKSW

AG

EN

VO

LVO

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

16-Jan 22 137 201 22 4 25 745 0 964 341 578 96 265 155 855 144 78 368 494 67 67 79 100 113 254 376 1774 346 46 183 8899

15-Jan 12 148 149 14 4 31 502 2 1280 356 746 109 198 123 52 722 191 64 469 528 101 74 89 87 116 337 1941 343 36 186 9010

% diff 83 -7 35 57 0 -19 48 -100 -25 -4 -23 -12 34 26 1544 -80 -59 475 5 -87 -34 7 12 30 119 12 -9 1 28 -2 -1

16-Feb 21 137 193 17 3 44 604 0 645 292 470 100 407 64 59 719 164 44 413 484 55 25 102 95 208 362 915 309 53 187 7191

15-Feb 3 151 193 16 2 44 514 0 765 252 694 123 247 47 56 674 155 54 472 371 71 30 75 106 172 289 906 372 46 157 7057

% diff 600 -9 0 6 50 0 18 -16 16 -32 -19 65 36 5 7 6 -19 -13 30 -23 -17 36 -10 21 25 1 -17 15 19 2

16-Mar 13 181 199 23 4 47 509 0 608 468 731 107 405 127 60 816 271 50 567 378 46 37 127 86 216 618 999 304 58 136 8191

15-Mar 9 181 165 31 9 54 461 0 794 434 669 129 304 108 63 732 217 64 611 434 63 46 90 100 239 483 970 420 33 162 8075

% diff 44 0 21 -26 -56 -13 10 -23 8 9 -17 33 18 -5 11 25 -22 -7 -13 -27 -20 41 -14 -10 28 3 -28 76 -16 1

16-Apr 5 138 135 13 2 29 696 0 589 82 523 68 455 84 53 674 206 38 451 445 85 46 8 87 221 382 748 261 38 228 6790

15-Apr 7 155 195 36 6 34 509 0 576 261 587 86 295 49 53 597 130 37 373 357 55 36 73 114 155 373 794 288 22 120 6373

% diff -29 -11 -31 -64 -67 -15 37 2 -69 -11 -21 54 71 0 13 58 3 21 25 55 28 -89 -24 43 2 -6 -9 73 90 7

16-May 17 159 113 17 1 26 697 0 677 268 628 94 400 101 55 671 202 31 474 394 63 34 112 114 234 427 965 301 58 169 7502

15-May 3 174 134 11 2 35 457 0 778 261 645 77 221 80 48 695 159 49 428 328 64 45 101 108 174 325 958 309 29 145 6843

% diff 467 -9 -16 55 -50 -26 53 -13 3 -3 22 81 26 15 -3 27 -37 11 20 -2 -24 11 6 34 31 1 -3 100 17 10

16-Jun 6 166 123 10 4 58 596 0 843 420 836 89 553 100 55 842 226 44 565 384 85 42 141 159 210 495 1569 338 62 165 9186

15-Jun 16 163 144 17 4 86 466 0 870 285 773 146 292 70 47 697 173 58 691 281 48 30 117 145 245 404 2171 369 38 175 9021

% diff -63 2 -15 -41 0 -33 28 -3 47 8 -39 89 43 17 21 31 -24 -18 37 77 40 21 10 -14 23 -28 -8 63 -6 2

16-Jul 4 121 131 2 1 38 578 0 663 325 513 124 596 92 50 686 205 48 418 467 49 35 88 42 237 407 1321 252 51 157 7701

15-Jul 8 130 162 12 0 66 513 0 647 358 539 140 282 83 52 724 178 40 413 348 53 62 73 111 199 352 1179 312 39 197 7272

% diff -50 -7 -19 -83 -42 13 2 -9 -5 -11 111 11 -4 -5 15 20 1 34 -8 -44 21 -62 19 16 12 -19 31 -20 6

16-Aug 6 166 141 3 2 39 602 0 767 423 655 140 502 85 77 813 221 50 564 454 64 35 89 73 255 484 1542 421 47 174 8894

15-Aug 10 166 128 9 1 62 413 0 721 331 664 147 306 77 45 743 153 41 407 444 62 33 93 172 210 332 1512 291 48 131 7752

% diff -40 0 10 -67 100 -37 46 6 28 -1 -5 64 10 71 9 44 22 39 2 3 6 -4 -58 21 46 2 45 -2 33 15

16-Sep 2 155 161 9 0 52 619 0 1197 395 716 155 503 100 68 883 193 61 565 534 72 33 66 158 214 502 1692 391 51 157 9704

15-Sep 5 187 182 12 3 102 618 0 1068 353 700 131 265 71 57 891 194 63 604 425 50 31 81 111 258 314 1471 314 56 218 8835

% diff -60 -17 -12 -25 -100 -49 0 12 12 2 18 90 41 19 -1 -1 -3 -6 26 44 6 -19 42 -17 60 15 25 -9 -28 10

16-Oct 6 148 158 2 1 58 785 0 1490 387 499 147 458 101 64 912 253 60 567 483 74 50 116 249 208 418 2468 386 52 195 10795

15-Oct 10 121 185 14 7 40 594 0 992 284 687 161 265 80 50 907 178 58 366 395 79 29 92 226 191 400 2741 253 41 188 9634

% diff -40 22 -15 -86 -86 45 32 50 36 -27 -9 73 26 28 1 42 3 55 22 -6 72 26 10 9 5 -10 53 27 4 12

16-Nov 2 187 185 0 0 28 650 0 1169 351 691 238 531 93 65 832 205 65 643 506 61 28 114 248 231 479 1541 338 50 191 9722

15-Nov 13 124 185 16 3 33 492 0 998 289 569 87 340 67 57 737 144 59 327 406 80 21 84 186 209 338 1712 286 55 198 8115

% diff -85 51 0 -100 -100 -15 32 17 21 21 174 56 39 14 13 42 10 97 25 -24 33 36 33 11 42 -10 18 -9 -4 20

16-Dec 2 135 124 0 0 49 387 0 776 211 489 200 218 46 65 714 192 31 475 521 30 16 46 38 175 340 2344 247 42 156 8069

15-Dec 9 66 132 13 2 40 532 0 758 149 413 102 245 64 61 588 223 28 493 416 33 7 39 67 100 430 1608 223 62 207 7110

% diff -78 105 -6 -100 -100 23 -27 2 42 18 96 -11 -28 7 21 -14 11 -4 25 -9 129 18 -43 75 -21 46 11 -32 -25 13

YTD 16 106 1830 1864 118 22 493 7468 0 10388 3963 7329 1558 5293 1148 1526 8706 2416 890 6196 5117 751 460 1109 1462 2663 5290 17878 3894 608 2098 102644

YTD 15 105 1766 1954 201 43 627 6071 2 10247 3613 7686 1438 3260 919 641 8707 2095 615 5654 4733 759 444 1007 1533 2268 4377 17963 3780 505 2084 95097

%diff 1 4 -5 -41 -49 -21 23 -100 1 10 -5 8 62 25 138 0 15 45 10 8 -1 4 10 -5 17 21 0 3 20 1 8

TOP 10 NEW PASSENGER MODELSMAKE MODEL

YTD '16

MAKE MODELYTD '15

TOYOTA COROLLA 6277 TOYOTA COROLLA 6516TOYOTA RAV4 3613 TOYOTA RAV4 3522KIA SPORTAGE 3067 HOLDEN COMMODORE 2714MAZDA CX-5 2843 MAZDA CX-5 2583HYUNDAI TUCSON 2652 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 2542SUZUKI SWIFT 2571 MAZDA MAZDA3 2507MAZDA MAZDA3 2473 TOYOTA YARIS 2502HOLDEN COMMODORE 2458 HOLDEN CAPTIVA 2459TOYOTA YARIS 2376 SUZUKI SWIFT 2375HOLDEN CAPTIVA 2292 HYUNDAI IX35 2190HYUNDAI SANTA FE 2066 HYUNDAI SANTA FE 2042NISSAN X-TRAIL 2061 HONDA JAZZ 1890MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 2021 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 1789TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 1989 NISSAN QASHQAI 1573NISSAN QASHQAI 1794 MITSUBISHI ASX 1571HONDA JAZZ 1589 NISSAN X-TRAIL 1555MITSUBISHI ASX 1535 HOLDEN CRUZE 1554SUZUKI VITARA 1482 MAZDA MAZDA2 1489MAZDA CX-3 1479 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 1381MAZDA MAZDA2 1396 FORD KUGA 1199

TOP 20 NEW PASSENGER MAKES

MAKE YTD '16YTD '15

Movement% Change

Market Share

TOYOTA 17878 17963 -0.5 17.4HOLDEN 10388 10247 1.4 10.1MAZDA 9417 8707 8.2 9.2FORD 7468 6071 Up 1 23.0 7.3HYUNDAI 7329 7686 Down 1 -4.6 7.1MITSUBISHI 6070 5654 7.4 5.9NISSAN 5544 4733 17.1 5.4KIA 5295 3260 Up 3 62.4 5.2SUZUKI 5290 4377 Down 1 20.9 5.2HONDA 3963 3613 9.7 3.9VOLKSWAGEN 3894 3780 Down 2 3.0 3.8SUBARU 2663 2268 17.4 2.6MERCEDES-BENZ 2482 2095 18.5 2.4BMW 1864 1954 -4.6 1.8AUDI 1830 1766 3.6 1.8JEEP 1558 1438 Up 1 8.3 1.5SSANGYONG 1462 1533 Down 1 -4.6 1.4SKODA 1209 1007 20.1 1.2LAND ROVER 1148 919 24.9 1.1PEUGEOT 751 759 Up 1 -1.1 0.7OTHER 5141 5267 -2.4 5.0TOTAL 102644 95097 7.9 100.0



NEWSTALK

There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention.

In an increasingly climate-constrained world, necessity has rarely been greater than what lies before us in coming decades.

Globally each year, the motor in-dustry spends billions developing new technologies to improve fuel consump-tion, reduce noxious vehicle emissions and lower carbon dioxide emission levels from vehicles.

This development is leading to greater fuel efficiency from the internal combustion engine and the accelerated develop-ment of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles.

Alternative low-carbon technologies such as fuel cells are also receiving considerable attention and investment. Who knows what else is around the corner?

The Motor Industry Association (MIA) is a voluntary trade body set up to rep-resent the interests of the new vehicle industry, specifically the official New Zealand distributors of overseas vehicle manufacturers.

Members account for more than 98% of all new vehicles imported and sold in New Zealand across the passenger car, light and heavy commercial vehicle and motor cycle sectors.

The association has 39 members - official distributors appointed by vehicle manufacturers - covering 79 different brands.

In the past few years, it has been active in foreshadowing the fast-paced technological developments of vehicles over the next decade.

In our view, in the next 10 years we will see more change in how cars are built and function than we have in the past 50 years.

The changes are occurring in three broad areas - low emission fuel options, connected vehicles and the move to autonomous vehicles.

As interest has grown in electric vehicles, their availability is in question. Not many models are available and those that we do have cost more than their non-EV equivalents.

To give the market clarity the MIA last year surveyed its light vehicle members on their plans to distrib-ute battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which we refer to as plug-in

vehicles, to the end of 2021. The survey results are on our

website http://www.mia.org.nz/Documents#Environment.

We also track the number of new low-emission vehicles sold each month. That data can be found at http://www.mia.org.nz/Sales-Data/Vehicle-Sales#hybrid

The survey showed that around 44 new models would be introduced to the market from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2021.

The rate of introduction is around seven to 10 new models a year, with a third of them being BEVs and two-thirds PHEVs.

With worldwide interest growing in EVs, the pace at which manufacturers are developing new models continues to accelerate.

To keep the industry data up to date the MIA will redo the survey in the sec-ond quarter of this year and I expect we

will see the new model list grow. Another barrier to EV ownership is

anxiety over range and a lack of charg-ing stations.

The association has been work-ing with government and the charging station sectors to provide advice on cables and connectors so that as the sector develops at a fast pace, there is uniformity of plugs and connectors be-tween the car and the charging station.

The MIA is also addressing the need for advice to emergency responders on what to do and what not to do when responding to an accident involving

EVs. Much has been

said about the cost of EVs com-pared to non-EV vehicles.

It is true that EVs carry a pur-chase price pre-mium. In time, as

battery technology improves, volumes increase and technological improve-ments reduce production costs, the purchase price of an EV will become more competitive.

More importantly, right now it is easier to own an EV when consider-ing that when the purchase price and variable running costs (charging and servicing) are combined, EVs are already approaching price parity over a four to five-year period.

David Crawford began his tenure as chief executive officer of the Mo-tor Industry Association in February 2013. He had previously worked more than 20 years in government, including several years as Land Transport Safety and Environment general manager at the Ministry of Transport. In that role he led, among other things, the climate change transport work programme.

It’s getting easier to own an EV

David Crawford is chief executive of the Motor Industry Association and a member of the government-appointed working group for electric vehicle leadership. A member of the group he writes mostly on its work. Read more about electric vehicles at EVtalk.co.nz.

www.evtalk.co.nz

Keep up with the Electric Vehicle industry news


LAUNCHEDTALK

Mazda New Zealand reckons the newly launched RF model

will account for nine out of 10 of ND-series MX-5 sales in 2017.

Since the local introduc-tion of the soft-top ND-series Mazda MX-5 roadster more than 18 months ago, 134 have found homes in New Zealand.

Mazda New Zealand is forecasting sales of 135 MX-5 vehicles for 2017, and it is con-fident the majority will be the new Limited grade RF models with automatic transmission.

The brand is confident that the addition of the 2.0-litre RF to the MX-5 roadster line-up will attract new buyers who like the idea of a wind-in-the-hair sports car, but prefer the convenience and security of a folding three-piece metal roof rather than a soft-top.

Mazda New Zealand man-aging director Andrew Clear-water says the MX-5 RF sees the acceleration of open-top

motoring to a wider audience.“The RF is a car that broad-

ens the appeal of the MX-5, and it is something that only Mazda could create,” he says.

Clearwater thinks there is still some momentum in the new vehicle, and he believes

2017 will be another “stellar year for new car sales, but we may not see double-digit growth again.”

The MX-5 RF morphs from a stylish teardrop-shaped fast-back coupé to a Targa-top–style cabriolet in 13 seconds, with Mazda claiming it’s the world’s fastest operating fold-back metal roof yet.

Mazda will continue to market three soft-top road-

sters, a 1.5-litre GSX grade six-speed manual ($40,995), and a 2.0-litre Limited grade in a six-speed manual ($46,995) or automatic transmission ($48,495).

The 2.0-litre RF will be available in a GSX grade six-

speed automatic ($48,495), Lim-ited grade six-speed manual ($51,495) or automatic ($52,995).

For the launch, there are 15 spe-cial edition Limited RF-S models with a six-speed automatic

($54,995) available for MX-5 aficionados.

While the RF is 47kg heavier than the roadster, the Japa-nese manufacturer has kept the 50:50 weight distribution which imbues the MX-5 with its sports car handling and responsiveness.

It offers the same boot ca-pacity as the roadster, and the overall length and wheelbase remain the same, with the

only change from the soft-top being the 5mm increase in the height of the RF’s folding metal roof.

According to Mazda, the roof may be operated when the vehicle is moving, but at no more than 10 kilometres per hour.

Autotalk drove both the manual and automatic RF and roadster models back-to-back on some winding country roads during the car’s media launch, to gain some comparative insight.

While there was very little difference in handling and performance between the two variants top down when the RF’s roof is closed, it is signifi-cantly more quiet and refined in the two-seat cabin at higher speeds.

The RF’s suspension also seemed the more comfort-able and compliant of the two MX-5 models, particularly when driven over some of New Zealand’s worst road surfaces.

Mazda launches MX-5 retractable fastback (RF)

ports into the country “almost inexhaustible”.

“We have the accelerated effect of used vehicles being imported, which acceler-ates the depreciation of new vehicles.

“We are the country that has the largest proportion of vehicles in our fleet that started life as a used import.”

He says the rate of depre-ciation means consumers who buy a used vehicle get “excellent value”.

Motor Trade Association dealer services and mediation manager Tony Everett agrees that used imports have had

a huge effect on the New Zealand market.

“After many years of con-siderably higher volumes of used vehicles than new, used imports now make up the larger share of our national fleet.

“Used imports can be accessed and shipped to New Zealand and still be a marketable proposition – in effect they are already heavily discounted at their source.“

Everett says there is also a big difference in the new vehicle market between the actual transaction prices and recommended retail price, which may have affected the

study’s result.“This is not unique to New

Zealand but does mean a considerable discount is ap-plied to start with which can serve to add to the perceived new vehicle depreciation.”

Most new vehicles sold here are to business and fleet buyers, so discounts can be significant, he says.

“You’re already seeing a massive depreciation before the car leaves the show-room.”

Additionally, not all vehi-cles face the same depre-ciation levels, with “hot seg-ments” like diesel SUVs and utes holding their value well.

“It is staggering to see what people will pay for an old second-hand ute.”

Notably, not all brands are covered by the study.

Japanese carmakers like Honda and Mitsubishi are not included, while Euro-pean brands are particularly prominent.

Carspring co-founder Maximilian Vollenbroich says the value of used cars around the world can be confusing.

“But we took it upon ourselves to make the com-plicated simple and present a snapshot of the current global value of used cars.”

Car depreciation result unsurprisingContinued from page 2


USED IMPORTSBROUGHT TO

YOU BY:

STATSTALKUSED VEHICLES


USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MODELS

MAKE MODELJAN '17

MAKE MODELJAN '16

TOYOTA HIACE 293 TOYOTA HIACE 255

NISSAN CARAVAN 79 NISSAN CARAVAN 70

MAZDA BONGO 74 NISSAN VANETTE 31TOYOTA REGIUS 43 TOYOTA DYNA 30NISSAN VANETTE 41 MAZDA BONGO 28ISUZU ELF 26 NISSAN NV200 21NISSAN NV200 26 ISUZU ELF 19FIAT DUCATO 23 TOYOTA REGIUS 17NISSAN NAVARA 21 NISSAN ATLAS 15TOYOTA TOYOACE 19 TOYOTA HILUX 13

USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES

MAKEJAN '17

JAN '16

Movement% Change

Market Share

TOYOTA 404 338 19.5 43.5NISSAN 197 158 24.7 21.2MAZDA 83 35 137.1 8.9ISUZU 41 25 Up 1 64.0 4.4MITSUBISHI 33 33 Down 1 0.0 3.6FORD 30 18 66.7 3.2FIAT 23 13 p 1 76.9 2.5CHEVROLET 19 16 Down 1 18.8 2.0HINO 19 9 Up 1 111.1 2.0HOLDEN 13 11 Down 1 18.2 1.4OTHER 66 39 69.2 7.1TOTAL 928 695 33.5 100.0

AROUND THE COUNTRY

DISTRICTJAN '17

JAN '16

% CHANGE

WHA 303 214 41.59AUC 6059 5776 4.90HAM 820 764 7.33THA 92 85 8.24TAU 558 508 9.84ROT 136 112 21.43GIS 60 46 30.43NAP 301 263 14.45NEW 200 174 14.94WAN 63 72 -12.50PAL 351 309 13.59MAS 78 65 20.00WEL 1058 852 24.18NEL 298 227 31.28BLE 70 53 32.08GRE 38 41 -7.32WES 15 10 50.00CHR 1713 1438 19.12TIM 129 112 15.18OAM 34 30 13.33DUN 393 383 2.61INV 164 141 16.31TOTAL 12933 11675 10.78Continued on page 32

The new-car market is not the only one in a record-setting mood

— with used import registra-tions in January the highest ever.

Passenger vehicle registra-tions for the month hit 12,933 units, a 10.8% gain on the total of 11,675 registered this time last year.

Commercial registrations continue to soar, up a third to 928 units from 695 a year ago.

Toyota was the passen-ger market leader on 3396, up 21.5% for a 26.3% market share.

Nissan was second on 2268, up 9.3% for 17.5% of the market, followed by

Mazda on 1979, up 6.5% for a 15.3% stake.

Honda was fourth, down 1.2% to 1308, Su-zuki claimed fifth, down 8.4% to 622.

The Toyota Corolla was the most popular used-import vehicle, on 701 units.

In second was the Mazda Axela on 606, followed by the Nissan Tiida on 549.

The Suzuki Swift was a very close fourth on 542, followed by the Honda Fit on 485.

The most popular people mover was the Toyota Wish on 320, the

Imports also break January record





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USED IMPORTSBROUGHT TO YOU BY:


USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES – 2017

CH

EV

RO

LET

DO

DG

E

FIA

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FOR

D

HIN

O

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LDE

N

ISU

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MA

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A

MIT

SUB

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I

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LKSW

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17-Jan 19 4 23 30 19 13 41 83 33 197 404 10 52 92816-Jan 16 5 13 18 9 11 25 35 33 158 338 7 27 695

% diff 19 -20 77 67 111 18 64 137 0 25 20 43 93 34YTD 16 19 4 23 30 19 13 41 83 33 197 404 10 52 928YTD 15 16 5 13 18 9 11 25 35 33 158 338 7 27 695

%diff 19 -20 77 67 111 18 64 137 0 25 20 43 93 34

Mazda Atenza was the large-car leader on 292, and the Volkswagen Golf top Euro on 289.

The most popular SUV was the Mitsubishi Outlander on 256.

Toyota was the most popular brand of commercial on 404 units, up 19.5% for a 43.5% market share. Nissan was second on 197, up 24.7%

for 21.2% of the trade.Mazda was third on 83,

followed by Isuzu on 41 and Mitsubishi on 33.

The Toyota Hiace was the most popular commercial model on 293 units — well clear of anything else.

The Nissan Caravan was second on 79, followed by the Mazda Bongo on 74.

The Toyota Regius was fourth on 43, while the Nis-san Vanette achieved a tally of 41.

Auckland not leading marketAuckland was not the

source of the market’s strong growth — regional centres


Electric Nissan boost Note to top of market

Nissan’s Note — driven by the ar-rival of the ePower

hybrid version — topped the Japanese car market in January.

The ePower version, which has a battery and an electric motor, and is charged by an onboard petrol generator engine, boosted Note sales by 70% to top the market.

Total full-sized car regis-trations were up 8.6% year-on-year to 258,085 units.

The Nissan Serena was the second most popular model, nearly doubling its sales to 11,179 units off the back of a new ProPilot semi-autonomous driving system.

Last year’s market leader, the Toyota Prius, recorded a 53% decline in sales year-on-year to 9883 — the first time sales have dropped into four figures in 14 months.

Also boosting sales were new models from Toyota

and Honda, with the C-HR SUV and Freed minivan respectively.

showed significantly more growth.

Sales in the city were up just 4.9%, to 6059 units.

The big movers were

Whangarei, up 42.6%; Ro-torua, up 21.4%; Gisborne, up 30.4%; Wellington, up 24.2%; Nelson, up 21.3% and Blenheim, up 32.1%.

http://www.autofinancedirect.co.nz



COMPETITIVE FINANCE. PERSONAL SERVICE. Tel: (09) 369 5276

www.autofinancedirect.co.nz

USED IMPORTSBROUGHT TO YOU BY:


USED IMPORT PASSENGER MODELSMAKE MODEL

JAN '17

MAKE MODELJAN '16

TOYOTA COROLLA 701 SUZUKI SWIFT 567MAZDA AXELA 606 NISSAN TIIDA 550NISSAN TIIDA 549 MAZDA AXELA 546SUZUKI SWIFT 542 HONDA FIT 479HONDA FIT 485 TOYOTA COROLLA 455MAZDA DEMIO 465 MAZDA DEMIO 447TOYOTA WISH 320 SUBARU LEGACY 307MAZDA ATENZA 292 TOYOTA WISH 295VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 289 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 261TOYOTA PRIUS 267 MAZDA ATENZA 256SUBARU LEGACY 259 MAZDA MPV 230MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 256 TOYOTA VITZ 211TOYOTA VITZ 241 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 210TOYOTA MARKX 239 NISSAN MURANO 185MAZDA MPV 226 BMW 3 SERIES 170TOYOTA ESTIMA 211 HONDA ODYSSEY 162BMW 3 SERIES 210 TOYOTA IST 157MAZDA PREMACY 194 TOYOTA PRIUS 157NISSAN DUALIS 182 MAZDA PREMACY 146HONDA ODYSSEY 168 NISSAN NOTE 143

USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES

MAKEJAN '17

JAN '16

Movement% Change

Market Share

TOYOTA 3396 2794 21.5 26.3NISSAN 2268 2075 9.3 17.5MAZDA 1979 1859 6.5 15.3HONDA 1308 1324 -1.2 10.1SUZUKI 622 679 -8.4 4.8BMW 568 470 Up 1 20.9 4.4SUBARU 543 558 Down 1 -2.7 4.2MITSUBISHI 469 404 Up 1 16.1 3.6VOLKSWAGEN 467 421 Down 1 10.9 3.6MERCEDES-BENZ 275 208 Up 1 32.2 2.1AUDI 264 224 Down 1 17.9 2.0VOLVO 107 69 Up 1 55.1 0.8FORD 102 131 Down 1 -22.1 0.8LEXUS 65 49 Up 1 32.7 0.5CHEVROLET 56 61 Down 1 -8.2 0.4JAGUAR 54 35 Up 3 54.3 0.4LAND ROVER 47 28 Up 3 67.9 0.4HOLDEN 43 48 Down 2 -10.4 0.3MINI 40 47 Down 2 -14.9 0.3PORSCHE 34 13 Up 5 161.5 0.3OTHER 226 178 27.0 1.7TOTAL 12933 11675 10.8 100.0

USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES – 2017

AU

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VW

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TAL

17-Jan 264 568 56 14 102 43 1308 25 1979 275 469 2268 12 543 622 3396 467 522 1293316-Jan 224 470 61 13 131 48 1324 44 1859 208 404 2075 17 558 679 2794 421 345 11675

% diff 18 21 -8 8 -22 -10 -1 -43 6 32 16 9 -29 -3 -8 22 11 51 11YTD 17 264 568 56 14 102 43 1308 25 1979 275 469 2268 12 543 622 3396 467 522 12933YTD 16 224 470 61 13 131 48 1324 44 1859 208 404 2075 17 558 679 2794 421 345 11675

%diff 18 21 -8 8 -22 -10 -1 -43 6 32 16 9 -29 -3 -8 22 11 51 11

Truckometer shows economic growth easing off

The ANZ Truckome-ter shows economic growth could be eas-

ing, with slight falls in Janu-ary’s Heavy Traffic Index and Light Traffic Index.

The Heavy Traffic Index dipped 0.8% but continues an overall trend upward, while the Light Traffic Index fell 0.5% in January, flatten-ing out overall.

“Given mounting evi-dence that the economy is attempting to grow faster than it sustainably can, we do expect to see growth ease over the course of this year, but to rates that are still more than respectable,” ANZ says.

Labour shortages, high debt levels, and less appe-tite and ability of financial

intermediaries to lend are all issues facing the economy, according to the report.

“We expect this half year may mark the peak of the economic cycle, in growth terms. This certainly does not mean that we expect that a sharp downturn is around the corner,” ANZ says.

“As has been the case for some time, we are closely

watching a number of global risks, which have been brought into focus by the intersection of heavy debt loadings and the recent rise in interest rates.

“Global politics also has the potential to add volatil-ity. However, we expect that left well enough alone, this economy could truck on for a while yet.”




Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz

Your first choice in automotive lending.

UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.

STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES


NEW PASSENGER MODELS

MAKE MODELJAN '17

MAKE MODELJAN '16

MAZDA AXELA 606 TOYOTA COROLLA 719NISSAN TIIDA 549 TOYOTA RAV4 391SUZUKI SWIFT 542 HOLDEN COMMODORE 366HONDA FIT 485 MAZDA MAZDA3 293MAZDA DEMIO 465 MAZDA CX-5 243TOYOTA WISH 320 HYUNDAI SANTA FE 227MAZDA ATENZA 292 NISSAN X-TRAIL 201VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 289 TOYOTA YARIS 195TOYOTA PRIUS 267 HOLDEN BARINA 192SUBARU LEGACY 259 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 191MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 256 SUZUKI SWIFT 189TOYOTA COROLLA 245 FORD MONDEO 153TOYOTA VITZ 241 NISSAN QASHQAI 147TOYOTA MARKX 239 HONDA JAZZ 146MAZDA MPV 226 HYUNDAI TUCSON 139TOYOTA ESTIMA 211 FORD FOCUS 138BMW 3 SERIES 210 SUBARU OUTBACK 135TOYOTA AURIS 198 FORD MUSTANG 131MAZDA PREMACY 194 HONDA HR-V 131NISSAN DUALIS 182 MITSUBISHI LANCER 125

NEW PASSENGER MAKES

MAKEJAN '17

JAN '16

Movement% Change

Market Share

TOYOTA 1644 1774 -7.3 16.2HOLDEN 1381 964 43.3 13.6MAZDA 779 855 -8.9 7.7FORD 778 745 4.4 7.7SUZUKI 728 376 Up 2 93.6 7.2MITSUBISHI 647 368 Up 2 75.8 6.4KIA 603 265 Up 4 127.5 5.9HYUNDAI 540 578 Down 3 -6.6 5.3NISSAN 478 494 Down 3 -3.2 4.7VOLKSWAGEN 474 346 Down 1 37.0 4.7HONDA 405 341 Down 1 18.8 4.0SUBARU 236 254 -7.1 2.3MERCEDES-BENZ 222 144 Up 2 54.2 2.2BMW 198 201 Down 1 -1.5 2.0AUDI 154 137 Up 1 12.4 1.5LAND ROVER 111 155 Down 2 -28.4 1.1SKODA 106 100 Up 1 6.0 1.0MINI 73 78 Up 3 -6.4 0.7PEUGEOT 73 67 Up 3 9.0 0.7OTHER 520 657 -20.9 5.1TOTAL 10150 8899 14.1 100.0


MAKEJAN '17

JAN '16

Movement% Change

Market Share

FORD 788 699 12.7 21.5TOYOTA 698 469 48.8 19.0HOLDEN 383 280 36.8 10.4NISSAN 276 231 19.5 7.5ISUZU 271 214 26.6 7.4MITSUBISHI 219 192 14.1 6.0MAZDA 154 106 Up 1 45.3 4.2VOLKSWAGEN 123 117 Down 1 5.1 3.3LDV 87 62 Up 2 40.3 2.4SSANGYONG 83 89 Down 1 -6.7 2.3OTHER 591 535 10.5 16.1TOTAL 3673 2994 22.7 100.0

The new year has begun with another highest month ever for new

vehicle registrations – indi-cating 2017 could continue the market’s record setting run.

A total of 13,823 vehicles were registered, up a mas-sive 16% year on year, and well ahead of the average 9.5% growth seen last year.

“This is the strongest ever start to a new sales year with record levels of new vehicles purchased by New Zealand businesses and consumers across the passenger and

commercial sectors,” Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford says.

Passenger car and SUV registrations of 10,150 units were up 14%, while com-mercial registrations were up 23% to 3673.

Toyota remains the overall

Year begins with another record for new vehicle sales





Fixed Rates. Fast approval.



NEW AROUND THE COUNTRYDISTRICT JAN '17 JAN '16 % CHANGE

WHA 217 128 69.53AUC 5218 4584 13.83HAM 627 600 4.50THA 71 67 5.97TAU 366 266 37.59ROT 88 85 3.53GIS 42 37 13.51NAP 240 186 29.03NEW 168 160 5.00WAN 106 88 20.45PAL 274 161 70.19MAS 77 64 20.31WEL 755 664 13.70NEL 136 107 27.10BLE 51 50 2.00GRE 20 18 11.11WES 5 1 400.00CHR 1216 1213 0.25TIM 62 62 0.00OAM 25 60 -58.33DUN 247 247 0.00INV 139 94 47.87TOTAL 10150 8899 14.06





FIA

T

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LDV

MA

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MER

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FUSO

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VOLK

SWAG

EN

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17-Jan 63 788 67 0 42 383 68 271 87 154 40 219 45 276 83 698 123 266 3673

16-Jan 70 699 55 5 38 280 53 214 62 106 56 192 27 231 89 469 117 231 2994

% diff -10 13 22 -100 11 37 28 27 40 45 -29 14 67 19 -7 49 5 15 23

YTD 17 63 788 67 0 42 383 68 271 87 154 40 219 45 276 83 698 123 266 3673

YTD 16 70 699 55 5 38 280 53 214 62 106 56 192 27 231 89 469 117 231 2994

%diff -10 13 22 -100 11 37 28 27 40 45 -29 14 67 19 -7 49 5 15 23

market leader with 17% market share (2342 units), followed by Holden with 13% (1764 units) and Ford with 11% market share (1566 units).

Toyota led passenger vehicle sales on 1644, a 16% share, followed by Holden 14% (1381 units) and Mazda with 8% market share (779 units).

Ford was the commercial market leader with 21% (788 units) followed by Toyota with 19% (698 units) and Holden with 10% market share (383 units).

The Ford Ranger was again the top of the bestsell-ing vehicle model table with 741 units.

The Toyota Corolla was the second bestselling model for the month of January with 590 units followed by the Toyota Rav 4 with 556 units – 418 of those rentals.

SUVs continued to domi-nate with the SUV medium segment accounting for 17% of the market, followed by the small passenger segment with 13% and the SUV large with 12% market share.

Overall the sports util-ity segments accounted for 40% of January registrations, followed by the passenger vehicle segments with 32%.

“As 2017 gets underway, nothing has changed with the economic environment that existed for most of 2016,” says Crawford.

“The key drivers to high levels of new vehicle sales are the continued high levels of net immigration, low costs of debt and a strong national economy.”

Continued from page 34 VW becomes world’s top-selling car maker

The Volkswagen Group has overtaken Toyota to become the world’s

best-selling carmaker, the first time the German com-pany has held the position.

Japan’s Toyota, which had topped sales for the past four years, sold 10.175 million vehicles globally in 2016.

That fell short of the 10.31

million sales which VW re-ported last week.

The milestone comes despite VW’s scandal over emissions tests cheating, which sparked a global backlash and multiple law-suits.

The scandal has so far cost Europe’s biggest carmaker billions of euros,

and led to the indictment of six of its senior executives in the United States.

The company also faces dam-age claims from investors total-ling 8.8 billion euros (A$12.9 billion) and is in talks with customers over mass recalls and compensation.

Volkswagen, which makes the Audi, Por-sche and Skoda brands, saw a 3.8% increase in sales buoyed by demand in

China.And it has been making

inroads in other markets too. In Sweden, for example, the Volkswagen Golf was the most popular new car in 2016 — the first time in more than half a century that a Volvo hasn’t topped the country’s sales.

Toyota’s sales grew by 0.2% — though it appears to have suffered from a slow-down in the US car industry.

Toyota fell from the top spot for the first time since 2011, when manufacturers’ supply chains were disrupted by a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami in north-eastern Japan.

However, in New Zealand, Toyota retained top spot — selling the most new vehicles for the 29th consecutive year.

General Motors is yet to report its figures, but it is expected to lag both the Japanese and the German firms.









NEW PASSENGER MAKES

ALF

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DA

I

JEE

P

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PO

RSC

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SKO

DA

SSA

NG

YO

NG

SUB

AR

U

SUZ

UK

I

TO

YO

TA

VO

LKSW

AG

EN

VO

LVO

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

17-Jan 7 154 198 2 1 15 778 0 1381 405 540 71 603 111 55 779 222 73 647 478 73 58 106 60 236 728 1644 474 44 207 10150

16-Jan 22 137 201 22 4 25 745 0 964 341 578 96 265 155 855 144 78 368 494 67 67 79 100 113 254 376 1774 346 46 183 8899

% diff -68 12 -1 -91 -75 -40 4 43 19 -7 -26 128 -28 -94 441 185 -80 31 613 9 -27 6 -47 -7 94 -7 37 -4 13 14

YTD 17 7 154 198 2 1 15 778 0 1381 405 540 71 603 111 55 779 222 73 647 478 73 58 106 60 236 728 1644 474 44 207 10150

YTD 16 22 137 201 22 4 25 745 0 964 341 578 96 265 155 855 144 78 368 494 67 67 79 100 113 254 376 1774 346 46 183 8899

%diff -68 12 -1 -91 -75 -40 4 43 19 -7 -26 128 -28 -94 441 185 -80 31 613 9 -27 6 -47 -7 94 -7 37 -4 13 14

New vehicle sales across Australia got off to a solid start in

January, with the month’s sales nudging ahead of the same period last year and a rise in activity among private purchasers.

There were 84,910 new vehicle sales in January 2017 – an increase of 537 vehicle sales or 0.6% on January 2016.

January 2017 had 24 sell-ing days – the same number of selling days as January 2016, which resulted in an increase of 22.4 vehicle sales per day.

Total sales for January, including passenger cars, SUVs, light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) totalled 84,910 for the month, 0.6% up on the same month in 2016.

LCVs sales fell 3.95% to 13,942 from 14,503 in Janu-ary 2016, while HCV sales in-creased 20.9% to 1921 from 1589 in January 2016.

Positive start to 2017 for Australian new car sales

NEW COMMERCIAL MODELS (UNDER 3500KG)

MAKE MODELJAN '17

MAKE MODELJAN '16

FORD RANGER 741 FORD RANGER 661TOYOTA HILUX 447 TOYOTA HILUX 300HOLDEN COLORADO 360 HOLDEN COLORADO 266NISSAN NAVARA 276 NISSAN NAVARA 231TOYOTA HIACE 234 MITSUBISHI TRITON 191MITSUBISHI TRITON 219 ISUZU D-MAX 166ISUZU D-MAX 198 TOYOTA HIACE 157MAZDA BT-50 154 MAZDA BT-50 106SSANGYONG ACTYON SPORT 83 SSANGYONG ACTYON SPORT 89VOLKSWAGEN AMAROK 69 VOLKSWAGEN AMAROK 69

Within the segments, light commercials fell 3.9%, passenger car sales declined slightly down 0.8%, while SUVs continued a consistent growth pattern, with a gain of 3.2%.

The nation’s top five best-selling vehicles in January were the Mazda3

(3473 sales), Toyota Corolla (2943), Toyota Hilux (2702), Ford Ranger (2622) and Hyundai i30 (2018).

Toyota led the market in January with a 14.8% share,

followed by Mazda (11.9%, Holden (8.5%), Hyundai (7.9%) and Ford (7%).




STATSTALKSECONDHAND

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SECONDHAND REGISTRATIONS − JANUARY 2017SALE TYPE WHA AUC HAM THA TAU ROT GIS NAP NEW WAN PAL MAS WEL NEL BLE GRE WES CHR TIM OAM DUN INV TOTAL

Cars 2017

Public to Trader 234 4211 1154 101 612 80 85 360 245 130 618 87 1073 216 109 25 1924 149 15 403 247 12078

Public to Public 1866 14849 3378 538 2218 907 379 1584 1081 492 1725 448 3047 1031 437 229 76 5388 561 181 2027 1039 43481

Trader to Public 534 5444 1362 207 900 269 185 596 419 151 811 194 1477 306 155 76 25 2319 232 58 703 331 16754

Cars 2016

Public to Trader 222 4180 1121 87 520 107 92 368 235 143 546 97 1068 236 109 34 1682 136 6 406 226 11621

Public to Public 1849 14567 3146 636 2093 879 353 1457 979 522 1649 431 2931 1038 412 228 78 5232 518 158 2026 969 42151

Trader to Public 498 5493 1312 204 882 346 143 581 389 197 743 175 1420 305 165 59 17 1949 212 61 616 360 16127

Cars % Change

Public to Trader 5.4 0.7 2.9 16.1 17.7 -25.2 -7.6 -2.2 4.3 -9.1 13.2 -10.3 0.5 -8.5 0.0 -26.5 14.4 9.6 150.0 -0.7 9.3 3.9

Public to Public 0.9 1.9 7.4 -15.4 6.0 3.2 7.4 8.7 10.4 -5.7 4.6 3.9 4.0 -0.7 6.1 0.4 -2.6 3.0 8.3 14.6 0.0 7.2 3.2

Trader to Public 7.2 -0.9 3.8 1.5 2.0 -22.3 29.4 2.6 7.7 -23.4 9.2 10.9 4.0 0.3 -6.1 28.8 47.1 19.0 9.4 -4.9 14.1 -8.1 3.9

Motorcycles 2017

Public to Trader 5 147 31 26 2 2 13 10 3 19 2 65 8 2 26 13 7 381

Public to Public 76 582 176 21 118 48 9 94 74 23 90 11 160 58 30 7 4 272 29 10 111 41 2044

Trader to Public 13 139 33 3 24 6 1 13 10 6 18 4 39 10 4 1 43 4 1 15 8 395

Motorcycles 2016

Public to Trader 5 107 36 30 4 4 8 3 32 5 47 7 2 30 2 12 5 339

Public to Public 49 564 162 25 97 35 8 68 68 21 82 15 135 73 25 9 6 262 22 3 86 40 1855

Trader to Public 12 116 40 9 26 11 1 16 15 4 28 5 46 14 1 1 27 4 2 20 6 404

Motorcycles % change

Public to Trader 0.0 37.4 -13.9 -13.3 -50.0 225.0 25.0 0.0 -40.6 -60.0 38.3 14.3 0.0 -13.3 -100.0 8.3 40.0 12.4

Public to Public 55.1 3.2 8.6 -16.0 21.6 37.1 12.5 38.2 8.8 9.5 9.8 -26.7 18.5 -20.5 20.0 -22.2 -33.3 3.8 31.8 233.3 29.1 2.5 10.2

Trader to Public 8.3 19.8 -17.5 -66.7 -7.7 -45.5 0.0 -18.8 -33.3 50.0 -35.7 -20.0 -15.2 -28.6 300.0 0.0 59.3 0.0 -50.0 -25.0 33.3 -2.2

Trucks 2017

Public to Trader 51 550 207 32 85 22 33 76 37 27 122 23 77 66 32 210 31 2 64 44 1791

Public to Public 320 1652 524 85 342 121 99 264 184 77 282 70 348 169 70 41 22 780 104 42 305 161 6062

Trader to Public 129 618 243 52 140 58 39 134 83 40 150 31 160 68 56 26 7 287 39 15 123 75 2573

Trucks 2016

Public to Trader 45 420 161 13 78 22 30 68 39 26 79 21 70 56 33 9 190 26 2 59 58 1505

Public to Public 314 1486 467 90 343 127 68 214 174 91 231 86 317 176 75 53 18 687 88 21 313 186 5625

Trader to Public 102 595 189 38 139 54 43 111 81 42 115 43 124 56 39 17 4 295 41 18 111 81 2338

Trucks % change

Public to Trader 13.3 31.0 28.6 146.2 9.0 0.0 10.0 11.8 -5.1 3.8 54.4 9.5 10.0 17.9 -3.0 -100.0 10.5 19.2 0.0 8.5 -24.1 19.0

Public to Public 1.9 11.2 12.2 -5.6 -0.3 -4.7 45.6 23.4 5.7 -15.4 22.1 -18.6 9.8 -4.0 -6.7 -22.6 22.2 13.5 18.2 100.0 -2.6 -13.4 7.8

Trader to Public 26.5 3.9 28.6 36.8 0.7 7.4 -9.3 20.7 2.5 -4.8 30.4 -27.9 29.0 21.4 43.6 52.9 75.0 -2.7 -4.9 -16.7 10.8 -7.4 10.1

The market for second-hand cars ended the year down, but has

made a small recovery.Secondhand sales by

dealers were up 3.9% with the month to 16,754 units, their purchases up by the same margin to 12,078.

The public transacted 43,481 vehicles, a 3.2% gain.

In motorcycles, dealer sales were down 2.2% to 395, while purchases up 12.4% to 381 bikes.

Public sales of bikes rose 10.2% to 2044 units.

Dealer truck sales were

busy in January, up 10.1% to 2573 units, while dealer pur-chases were up 19% to 1791.

Public sales were up 7.8% to 6062.

Slow start for secondhand




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STATSTALKTRUCKS

NEW BIKE MODELSMAKE MODEL JAN '17YAMAHA MT-03 LA 28SUZUKI UZ50 25TNT MOTOR ROMA 2T 24SUZUKI GN125H 20PIAGGIO ZIP 50 2T 17ROYAL ENFIELD CLASSIC 16YAMAHA MT-07 LAG 16HONDA CRF 1000 14HONDA NBC 110BN 12HARLEY DAVIDSON DYNA 17 LOW RIDER S 11

USED BIKE MAKESMAKE JAN '17 JAN '16 % Change

% of Market

HARLEY DAVIDSON 77 52 48.1 31.0DUCATI 23 20 15.0 9.3TRIUMPH 23 14 64.3 9.3YAMAHA 21 14 50.0 8.5HONDA 20 23 -13.0 8.1BMW 14 15 -6.7 5.6KTM 14 2 600.0 5.6KAWASAKI 9 7 28.6 3.6SUZUKI 8 7 14.3 3.2VICTORY 8 1 700.0 3.2OTHER 31 20 55.0 12.5TOTAL 248 168 47.6 100.0

NEW BIKE MAKES

VEHICLE MAKEJAN '17

YTD '17

JAN '16

% Change

Market Share %

SUZUKI 145 145 151 -4.0 18.1YAMAHA 105 105 41 156.1 13.1HONDA 73 73 81 -9.9 9.1HARLEY DAVIDSON 72 72 48 50.0 9.0TRIUMPH 44 44 43 2.3 5.5KAWASAKI 37 37 44 -15.9 4.6KTM 31 31 28 10.7 3.9TNT MOTOR 30 30 23 30.4 3.7BMW 25 25 28 -10.7 3.1APRILIA 22 22 24 -8.3 2.7PIAGGIO 18 18 17 5.9 2.2ROYAL ENFIELD 18 18 5 260.0 2.2VESPA 16 16 22 -27.3 2.0FACTORY BUILT 15 15 37 -59.5 1.9DUCATI 13 13 19 -31.6 1.6FORZA 12 12 13 -7.7 1.5SCOMADI 12 12 6 100.0 1.5MOTO GUZZI 11 11 3 266.7 1.4PGO 11 11 6 83.3 1.4VICTORY 11 11 9 22.2 1.4OTHER 80 80 98 -18.4 10.0TOTAL 801 801 746 7.4 100.0

Motorcycle sales have made a healthy start to the year - up 7.4%

in January.The market totalled 801

bikes and scooters registered - against 746 this time last year.

Suzuki was the market leader on 145 bikes, down 4% for an 18.1% market share.

Yamaha was second on 101, up 156.1% for a 13.1% stake, while Honda was third on 73, down 9.9% for 9.1% of

sales.Harley Davidson was the

fourth most popular brand - up 50% to 72, while Triumph was fifth on 44, up one bike from January 2016.

Next was Kawasaki on 37, followed by KTM on 31, TNT Motor on 30, BMW on 25 and Aprilia on 22.

The most popular bike was the learner-approved Yamaha MT-03 on 28 units.

The Suzuki UZ50 was next on 25, followed by the TNT Motor Roma on 24.

The Suzuki GN125H was fourth on 20 followed by the Piaggio Zip 50 on 17.

Used bikes surgeUsed import bike sales

had a huge month in Janu-ary, up 47.8% to 248 units.

Harley Da-vidson topped the market, up 48.1% to 77 units, for a 31% market share.

Ducati and Tri-

umph were tied for second on 23 bikes each, followed by Yamaha on 21 and Honda on 20.

Strong start for motorcycle sales



STATSTALKTRUCKS

STATSTALKBIKES

STATSTALKTRUCKS

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NEW TRUCK MAKES (OVER 3500KG)

MAKEJAN '17

JAN '16

% Change% of Market

JAN '17

JAN '16

ISUZU 60 41 46.3 16.3 60 41HINO 42 38 10.5 11.4 42 38MITSUBISHI FUSO 34 16 112.5 9.3 34 16FIAT 25 30 -16.7 6.8 25 30FUSO 22 0 6.0 22 0VOLVO 19 11 72.7 5.2 19 11UD TRUCKS 18 18 0.0 4.9 18 18KENWORTH 15 29 -48.3 4.1 15 29DAF 13 26 -50.0 3.5 13 26IVECO 12 9 33.3 3.3 12 9OTHER 60 66 -9.1 16.3 60 66TOTAL 320 284 12.7 87.2 320 284

USED TRUCKS MAKES

MAKEJAN '17

JAN '16

% Change

% of Market

JAN '17

JAN '16

ISUZU 34 23 47.8 27.0 34 23TOYOTA 21 25 -16.0 16.7 21 25HINO 19 7 171.4 15.1 19 7MITSUBISHI 14 14 0.0 11.1 14 14NISSAN 10 14 -28.6 7.9 10 14KENWORTH 4 2 100.0 3.2 4 2MERCEDES-BENZ 4 1 300.0 3.2 4 1CHEVROLET 2 1.6 2FIAT 2 9 -77.8 1.6 2 9IVECO 2 1 100.0 1.6 2 1OTHER 14 13 7.7 11.1 14 13TOTAL 126 109 15.6 100.0 126 109

It was a healthy start to the year for truck registrations with 320 new trucks reg-

istered in January - up from 284 units in January 2016.

Isuzu Trucks recorded 60 new truck registrations last month as it aims for its 18th consecutive year leading the market.

Its monthly tally was 46% up year-on-year from 41 registrations in the previous corresponding period.

Second-placed Fuso leapt from 16 new vehicle registra-tions in January 2016 to 56 units last month, an increase of more than 250%.

In third place on the table, Hino Distributors was up 10% year-on-year with 42 regis-trations in January, up from 38 at the same time last year.

Fourth-placed Fiat saw its year-on-year registration

tally slip from 30 to 25 new vehicles last month but fifth-placed Volvo Trucks rose to 19 from 11 units.

In sixth place, UD Trucks remained static with 18 registrations while seventh-placed Kenworth fell to 15 units from 29 in January 2016.

And in eighth position, DAF also dropped 13 listings down from 26 at the same time last year.

Isuzu Trucks New Zea-land general manager Colin Muir says the pleasing result meets the distributor’s inter-nal forecast.

“It was about where we predicted, give or take a couple of units. Our 10-year average for January new truck registrations is 26 so we have no complaints and probably could have done

10 or more units if pushed,” he says.

“Our wholesale result beat our aggressive target and smashed our January average out of the park.

“The pipeline for the forthcoming months is very healthy.”

Muir says Isuzu Trucks is taking a sound volume of or-ders on light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty trucks so it is hard to tell as yet if there has been increased interest in any one category.

He confirms the company will have an extensive pres-ence at the upcoming trans-port and heavy equipment expo at Mystery Creek.

“We’ll show a selection of cab and chassis models as well as customer trucks from light-duty to heavy-duty, and we will also be promot-ing the growing selection of

Isuzu accessories which is in line with our current promo-tion,” he says.

Used trucks remain steadyRegistrations of used

imported trucks rose to 126 units in January 2017 from 109 at the same time last year.

Isuzu was the market leader in used imported truck registrations with 34 units, up 47% from 23 units in January 2016.

Second-placed Toyota saw a small year-on-year decline, making 21 used imported truck registrations in last month, down from 25 in the previous correspond-ing period.

Third-placed Hino saw a jump to 19 units from 7 while fourth-placed Mitsubishi remained static on 14.

Full speed ahead for new trucks





TRIBUNALTALK

On January 28, 2016, the purchaser — a company — bought

a new 2016 Mercedes-Benz GL350 Blue TEC vehicle from the trader.

At the end of Febru-ary 2016 the purchaser, through its director and the main driver of the vehicle, said there was a fault with the handbrake and the vehicle was returned to the trader to have that fault re-paired. The trader says the vehicle was scanned and a fault was corrected with a software upgrade.

In March the purchaser complained of a recurrence

of the handbrake fault, the vehicle was returned to the trader, and the park brake control unit was identi-fied as causing the fault. A new park brake control unit was obtained and fitted to the vehicle at the start of April, and the issue has not recurred.

In the course of repro-gramming the park brake control unit, the trader’s technicians damaged the vehicle’s COMAND unit. The COMAND, which stands for Cockpit Management and Data system, is an electronic box — about the size of a DVD player — which fits

into the vehicle’s dash and controls the vehicle’s radio, navigation, and telephone systems, as well as the screen which shows images from the reversing camera and other warning messag-es. At the start of April the trader advised the purchas-er’s accountant, who dealt with all matters between the trader and the purchaser, of the failure of the COMAND unit.

It requested that the trader return the vehicle to the purchaser, because its director was not comforta-ble driving a loan car which had been provided by the trader. The purchaser’s di-rector had had an accident in the loan car provided by the trader, and was asked to pay a $300 contribution towards the repair costs.

Two weeks later Mer-cedes-Benz informed the trader that the COMAND unit which had been dam-aged as a consequence of the reprogramming of the park brake control unit was irreparable, and Mercedes-Benz requested the trader to replace the COMAND unit in the vehicle with a new unit. Unfortunately there were no new COMAND units avail-able in New Zealand.

The trader says it did have access to a unit, very similar in appearance, which — although not the correct part number for the vehicle — was a newer specifica-tion and was visually and dimensionally identical, and was interchangeable with the COMAND unit fitted to the vehicle. This unit could

be fitted to the vehicle to restore the functionality provided by the damaged COMAND unit until such time as the new correct part COMAND unit could be obtained from Germany.

This was the ‘work around’ COMAND unit solution. The trader says it believes that on April 18 a former employee of the trader contacted the purchaser’s accountant by telephone, and offered to fit the ‘work around’ COMAND unit as an interim solution until the correct COMAND unit part became available. The trader says that its offer was refused. The purchaser denies they were told that the trader had a COMAND unit which could restore the functionality of the damaged unit, but acknowledged that the purchaser’s account-ant had all dealings with the trader, and that he had not been personally involved.

For the next 15 weeks the trader says it sought to obtain the correct part from Singapore and then Germa-ny, and the trader’s dealer principal said that the part was not available as quickly as the trader expected.

The trader’s dealer prin-cipal told the tribunal that on June 29 he personally telephoned the purchaser’s accountant and asked for the vehicle to be returned to the trader so that it could fit the ‘work around’ COMAND unit. He says he told him that he would contact the trader after July 8 to make a booking. On that day he

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Communications failure in new Mercedes dealJi Xiang Garden Development Limited v Ingham Motor Holdings Limited

http://www.motorcentral.co.nz


TRIBUNALTALK

telephoned the trader, and told it he did not want the ‘work around’ COMAND unit fitted to the vehicle.

On July 25 the correct COMAND unit part arrived from Germany and the trader notified the purchas-er to bring the vehicle in to have it fitted. On the same day the trader received a letter from the purchaser’s solicitors rejecting the vehicle.

The trader says that the vehicle was not unsafe with-out the COMAND unit in the vehicle being functional.

The tribunal found that considering the price paid, the vehicle was not as du-rable as it should be con-sidering the fault with the handbrake and the damage to the COMAND unit.

It found that a reasonable consumer paying close to $159,000 for a high-quality European vehicle would not consider this to be accept-able.

The handbrake issue could have become a safety issue, but the tribunal says this was repaired in good time.

As for the COMAND unit,

the tribunal believes this was an inconvenience to the purchaser, including a lack of reversing camera which may have been a factor in a minor reversing accident the purchaser had. It also accepted the purchaser rejected the ‘work around’ solution.

The tribunal felt the issue came from a breakdown in communications.

“After listening to the evi-dence given by the parties I consider that this whole dispute has been caused by a breakdown in com-munications between (the

purchaser), the purchaser’s accountant, and the trader.”

It did note the period of 15 weeks to get the part was far too long.

It declined the rejection, as well as an unsubstanti-ated claim for $20,000 damages.

The tribunal felt the case should never have been brought, as it should have been clear to the purchaser and its legal advisers that the trader had a strong defence to the claim. It ordered the purchaser to pay the tribu-nal’s costs, and the cost of an interpreter, of $750.

In September 2017 the purchaser paid $3500 for a 1992 Toyota Estima.

The vendor is not a regis-tered trader, but both the purchaser and a friend gave evidence that when they visited the vendor’s prem-ises there were six or seven vehicles there for sale.

The purchaser also signed a ‘sales agreement’ promising a one week warranty and a buy back option. When pressed the trader admitted he thought he had sold five vehicles in the last 12 months.

The tribunal felt the vendor was carrying on the business of a trader, and is treating him as such under the Motor Vehicle Sales Act.

Having acquired the ve-hicle, the purchaser drove it to Kerikeri. The right front tyre was in such a poor condition that it blew out, and the purchaser had to replace it. On the way from Kerikeri to Kaitaia the

vehicle’s engine started to overheat, and the pur-chaser says he had to stop five times to replenish the radiator with water.

When the purchaser reached Kaitaia he took the vehicle to a workshop which pressure tested the cooling system, and advised in an invoice that it suspected the radiator was blocked, the thermostat was missing, and the cool-ing system in the vehicle was in a poor condition requiring repairs costing $700. There could also be an issue with the vehicle’s cylinder head or head gasket due to the vehicle overheating several times. They reported the vehicle was using water.

The workshop did a Warrant of Fitness check, which the vehicle failed for numerous reasons — including safety ones. A quote to repair it, includ-ing structural issues, came to $5850.

The purchaser notified

the trader of the faults and overheating issues, and the trader asked the purchaser to bring the vehicle back to Auckland at the purchaser’s cost, for the respondent to repair.

The purchaser refused to do so, and rejected the vehicle for its serious faults.

Subsequently the trader offered to refund $3200 and later $3000 of the pur-chase price, an offer then withdrawn at the hearing.

The tribunal noted the car was 24 years old, and believed its 137,540km odometer reading was likely fictitious. It also noted the car only cost $3500 — and that it only lasted 785km before failing.

“I do not think this old, unsafe vehicle should have been on the road. I have no hesitation in finding that it did not comply with the guarantee of acceptable quality — even allowing for its age, high mileage and cheap sale price. My

reasons are first, because the vehicle was not safe to be on the road with at least six serious WOF defects. Second, its cooling system was not free of faults, caus-ing the engine to overheat. Third, the vehicle was not as durable as a reasonable consumer paying $3500 would regard as accept-able, because the vehicle only lasted seven days before overheating.”

It accepted the rejec-tion, and ordered a full refund plus the costs of workshop assessing the vehicle. It also ordered the trader collect the vehicle at its own expense.


Vehicle should have never been on roadWatermann v Domenech

www.evtalk.co.nz



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DIARYTALK

THEDIARYAutoTalk's

group editor

Scott Morgan

looks at the

month gone by

on AutoTalk.co.nz

Sco

tt M

org

an Industry Association.The Ford Ranger dominated

the New Zealand market selling 8478 units in 2015 an increase of 1660 units over 2015, while at number two on the list the Toyota Hilux increased its 2015 total by 566 to 6187 units for 2016.

Mercedes-Benz secures most luxury brand registrationsMercedes-Benz has topped off a successful year by recording the most new car registrations for a luxury brand.

That’s following the release of the Motor Industry As-sociation’s 2016 registration data, which shows 2480 new Mercedes-Benz vehicle registrations to the end of the calendar year.

BMW managed 1860 registra-tions, while Audi secured 1829.

“2016 was a truly outstanding year for Mercedes-Benz Cars”, the company’s general manager Ben Giffin says.

January 12VW agrees to pay billions after admitting guilt in emissions scandal.Volkswagen faces a US$4.3 billion penalty after it decided to plead guilty to three felonies associated with the diesel emis-sions scandal.

Six German-based VW executives have been indicted by the US Department of Jus-tice, including Oliver Schmidt who was arrested on Monday, FT.com reports.

“For years, Volkswagen ad-vertised its vehicles calling them ‘clean diesel’,” Loretta Lynch, US attorney-general says.

January 13Toyota is celebrating another record year of sales.The company sold 26,753 Toyotas across its 68 dealers nationwide in 2016, up from 26,319 in 2015.

“New Zealand experienced solid economic growth last year and we’ve been a benefi-ciary of that. The construction and infrastructure sectors are booming and we’ve got a great line-up and the right tools of the trade,” says Steve Prangnell, Toyota New Zealand general manager of sales.

“Last year was far and away the biggest new vehicle market New Zealand has ever seen.” says Prangnell.

January 16Dealer numbers rising againThe number of registered vehicle traders in New Zealand is climbing slowly again, after peaking in October.

Dealer numbers hit a peak of 3341 in October, eased to 3314 in November and then rose again last month to 3332.

Numbers usually peak in October, then ease a little when renewals of registration weed out some players only casually committed to the auto trade. This year the fall off has been not as great, and numbers have bounced back quickly, as the economy roars along and the economy holds the promise of good trading in 2017.

Holden announces end date to Australian manufacturingHolden has revealed that October 20, 2017 will be the carmaker’s final day as a car manufacturer in Australia.

The final car built will be a Holden Commodore at its Elizabeth plant in Adelaide. It will mean an end to over 60 years of vehicle manufacturing by Holden at the site.

January 17Safety ratings for MG GS and NZ-based AvensisThe Australasian New Car As-sessment Program (ANCAP) has awarded the MG GS medium SUV 4 stars, while the Toyota


January 9Mitsubishi employees shine on world stageService advisor Michael Strudwick succeeded against some of the world’s best at the Mitsubishi Motors Global Skills Competition.

Strudwick, of Mexted Mit-subishi in Wellington, placed third among service advisors at the competition in Tokyo last month, which featured em-ployees from 28 countries.

He says the calibre of com-petition was particularly high, so finishing third was a great surprise. “I didn’t know what to expect. I just stayed focused and stuck to the procedures I follow every day at work – and it paid off!

Bapcor closer to control of HellabyThe prolonged takeover of Hellaby Holdings by Australian automotive aftermarket giant Bapcor is getting closer to frui-tion.

During the Christmas-New Year period, Bapcor built a 48.7% stake in Hellaby Holdings, creeping closer to winning control of its target according to BusinessDesk.

It says Bapcor held 47.5% of Hellaby on Dec. 28, 2016. Under its takeover offer made in Oc-tober, it wants to buy up to 90% of Hellaby at $3.60 per share, a threshold which would allow it to enforce mop-up provisions to take the company private ac-cording to BusinessDesk.

Dealers’ landed prices revealed to publicCar buyers can now access the landed price of individual vehi-cles imported into Fiji.

At the same time, the Fiji Revenue and Customs Author-ity (FRCA) has issued a stern warning to vehicle dealers not

to jack up the retail prices of hybrid vehicles, which were imported duty free before January 1.

“Any abuse will result in the issuance of a Customs Infringe-ment Notice for not passing on the zero duty to consum-ers,” says FRCA chief executive, Visvanath Das.

Top Trade Me Motors listings offer huge varietyA plane, bus and other automo-biles dominate Trade Me Motors’ top 10 most viewed listings for 2016.

At the head of the pack is a badly damaged Lamborghini Huracan that received 208,000 views and eventually sold for $165,800.

Plenty of people thought about taking to the skies, with a Czech jet coming in at num-ber five. This Czech jet proved popular in views but didn’t sell. None of the 43,000 people who viewed the listing were willing to pay the $179,000 asking price for the jet, which is still in the hands of its Timaru seller. Forty-foot boat the Laura Bruce found a new home after the previous owner no longer had the time to maintain it.

January 10Nissan and Volkswagen sell fewer utes in 2016It was a mostly stellar year for all the 4×4 and 4×2 pickups in the top 15 light commercial table, with only two brands selling fewer vehicles in 2016 than 2015.

Nissan and Volkswagen were the two brands which sold fewer light commercials in 2016 than the previous cor-responding period, 53 fewer Navara and 152 less Amarok to be exact, according to figures received today from the Motor


DIARYTALK

Avensis wagon gets a 5-star rating.

“The GS is a good car structurally, offering sound levels of occupant protection however its safety specification is lacking,” says ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin.

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane support systems and intelligent seat belt reminders for second row occu-pants are not offered on the GS.

Air NZ pulls Jaguar safety videoAir New Zealand will drop an in-flight ad that features a Jag-uar F-Pace SUV driving on the right-hand side of the road due to safety concerns.

The ad, which was filmed overseas, has been screening on Airbus A320 flights between Auckland and Queenstown as part on an inflight quiz, Stuff.co.nz reports.

“The advertisement high-lighted doesn’t meet our required standard and we’ve requested that it be removed,” Air NZ spokesperson Anna Cross says.

January 18UDC boss defending ANZ sale to Chinese conglomerateThe chief executive of UDC is supporting ANZ’s move to sell its asset finance arm to Chinese conglomerate HNA for $660m after an Auckland finance consultant called the move a ‘backwards step’.

Auckland-based finance expert Simon Thompson told the New Zealand Herald that a credit downgrade of UDC’s rating from A minus to BBB with a negative credit watch by the Standard and Poors agency immediately after the sale announcement, would mean higher interest rate costs for UDC customers.

“Secondly HNA has no prior exposure to New Zealand markets and no direct finance experience so there must be concerns about their direction,” Thompson says.

January 19$3.5 million to get more EVs on the roadAbout $3.5 million has been allocated to 15 projects that will help promote electric vehicle (EV) uptake in New Zealand.

The money, from the Low Emission Vehicles Contest-able Fund, aims to help the government meet its target of getting 64,000 EVs on the road by 2021, energy and resources minister Judith Collins says.

“The funding will provide up to 50% of funding for projects that will demonstrate and showcase low emission vehicle technologies in high-profile, visible ways that will help to normalise these technologies.”

Government offers guidance around new EV charging stationsOfficial guidance for those wanting to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations has been released by the government.

Transport minister Simon Bridges says the guidance is timely, with the New Zealand’s EV fleet reaching more than 2500.

“This guidance is an impor-tant step towards developing a safe and consistent nationwide charging network that EV drivers can depend on,” says Bridges.

January 20Cox Automotive Australia finalises mergerThe Cox Automotive Aus-tralia merger has been officially finalised and will see the new company work with a majority of Australian new and used car dealers.

The merger covers Cars-Guide, Dealer Solutions, Man-heim and Sell My Car to form Cox Automotive Australia and includes the finalisation of all necessary regulatory approvals.

For John Bailey, Cox Auto-motive president of internation-al, the merger will be a water-shed moment for the Australian automotive industry.

Marac Finance has a new CFOVehicle financier Marac Finance has a new boss, with Heartland Bank – Marac’s parent – nam-ing Air New Zealand deputy finance boss David Mackrell as its new chief financial officer.

The incoming CFO will start on February 15, replacing Simon Owen who announced his resignation in November, ending a 13-year stint with Heartland and its predecessor, Marac Finance.

Mackrell spent 12 years as Air NZ’s deputy CFO, reports NBR.

New charge card for BMW EV ownersA new charge card is now all that is needed for BMWi owners to access New Zealand’s largest network of charging stations.

BMW’s ChargeNow network is operated by Charge Net NZ, providing customers more than 100 DC charging stations between Kaitaia and Invercar-gill.

It will allow BMW’s electric vehicle (EV) drivers the ability to fast-charge their cars at sta-tions with the ChargeNow card, which effectively operates as a debit card.

January 23Trade Me bans trader who failed to deliver imported carsDealers are being urged to avoid working with a rogue trader who has been banned from Trade Me after failing to deliver cars to customers.

At least 16 Trade Me cus-tomers claim they have been left without cars after paying a 50% deposit for vehicles the trader said he was importing from Japan, the NZ Herald reports.

Trade Me head of trust and safety Jon Duffy told Autotalk the company is working with police on the matter after kick-ing the trader off the site and warning customers about what he has done.

Netball New Zealand partners with Suzuki

Suzuki New Zealand (SNZ) is the newly appointed official vehicle supplier to Netball NZ (NNZ) and the Silver Ferns.

ANZ automobile general manager Gary Collins says that given a high proportion of the brand’s Kiwi customers are fe-male, “it’s a perfect partnership from our perspective.”

It’s a three-year deal accord-ing to NNZ in which SNZ will become the driving force be-hind the country’s most popular team sport for women.

January 25New appointments to Turners leadership teamThere are several new faces on Turners Limited’s leadership team.

The company operates four divisions – Automotive Retail, Finance, Insurance and Debt Management, with senior executives overseeing divisions across the group.

Current chief operating officer of Turners Cars, Aaron Saunders, has been promoted to group chief operating officer of Turners Limited.

Williams’ role at BMW questionedAll Black Sonny Bill Williams’ role as a BMW ambassador is being revaluated after questions were raised about his association with controversial Muslim clerics.

Newsroom reports com-plaints have been made by BMW customers, the LGBT and Jewish communities about Williams’ links with Mufti Ismail Menk and Erbrahim Bham.

South African-based Menk is known for his anti-homosexual views, describing same-sex acts as “filthy” and “wrong”.

January 26ANCAP delivers 2 star rating for Ford MustangThe Ford Mustang has been a popular sports car in recent years, but potential buyers should be aware it scored a




DIARYTALK

lowly 2-Star rating in its Australa-sian New Car Assessment Pro-gramme (ANCAP) assessment.

“This result is simply shock-ing for such a newly designed and popular model,” says AN-CAP chief James Goodwin.

“The safety of adult occu-pants, child occupants and the ability to avoid a crash all form the basis of our ratings and the Mustang falls short in each of these areas,” he adds.

Mazda launches MX-5 retractable fastback (RF)Mazda New Zealand reckons the newly launched RF model will account for 9 out of 10 of ND-series MX-5 sales in 2017.

Since the local introduc-tion of the soft-top ND-series Mazda MX-5 Roadster more than 18 months ago, 134 have found homes in New Zealand.

Mazda New Zealand is fore-casting sales of 135 MX-5 vehi-cles for 2017, and it is confident the majority will be the new Limited grade RF models with automatic transmission.

Generous dealer gives away carWhitney Andrews couldn’t believe her luck over the holiday period after winning a car from New Plymouth dealer Greg “Ozy” Davis.

It is a turnaround in fortunes for the Kiwi American who re-cently broke up with her boy-friend after moving back from the United States to Taranaki.

“It was the hardest year of my life, but I’ve grown more in that time than over my entire 25 years,” she told Stuff.co.nz.

Virtual reality coming for Jaguar Land Rover customersJaguar Land Rover dealerships will soon roll out new virtual reality experience packs as the car maker sets its sights on at-tracting customers.

The packs will be intro-duced to New Zealand in the next few months to immerse customers in each new vehicle the company launches.

Even before vehicles are available, retailers will be able to

connect customers to a virtual tour where they can see and interact with a life-size model through a headset.

January 27Transport costs push up CPIThe Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in the December quarter, with transport costs a key con-tributor to the increase.

Statistics New Zealand fig-ures show petrol prices rose 4.1 percent, while road passenger transport prices jumped 11 per-cent, due to seasonally higher prices for hire cars.

Prices for new cars saw a 3.1 percent rise, due to lower levels of discounting.

Hellaby wants agreeable outcome from collective negotiationThe head of Hellaby Automotive says his company is committing to a mutually agreeable out-come over a collective agree-ment under negotiation with the union representing its workers.

Distribution centre work-ers at Hellaby owned car parts supplier Brake and Transmis-sion (BNT) walked off the job yesterday.

The First Union claims it the second time in as many months and that the company contin-ues postponing negotiations.

Autonomous electric vehicle arrives at Christchurch AirportThere is no driver needed for Christchurch Airport’s fully au-tonomous Smart Shuttle, which is part of New Zealand’s first on-road research trial.

The electric vehicle will car-ry 15 people, has no steering wheel and will run on private roads around the airport.

Christchurch Airport chief executive Malcolm Johns says the airport team is keen to understand how autonomous shuttles might operate and how people may react and interact with them.

Law enables

autonomous driving in GermanyGermany’s federal govern-ment has approved a draft law allowing for autonomously-driving cars to be active on German streets.

This is seen as an impor-tant step as Germany is home to three of the world’s most innovative automakers, BMW, VW and Mercedes Benz.

Crucially within the law, responsibility for mishaps continued to rest firmly in the hands of the driver, but allows for the driver to hand control of his or her vehicle to the vehicle’s own control system in certain situations and for certain periods of time.

High Kiwi dollar negating further official cash rate cut?Inflation has risen back into the Reserve Bank’s target band, which combined with the New Zealand dollar sitting at a two-and-a-half-month high means further cuts to the official cash rate (OCR) are unlikely.

According to BusinessDesk, the consumer price index rose 0.4% in the December quarter for an annual increase of 1.3% as the recovery in global oil prices pushed up local petrol costs and as the rampant hous-ing market continues to drive rapid house price gains.

The Kiwi dollar climbed as high as 73.12 US cents, the highest since Nov. 9, and recently traded at 73.07 cents from 72.70 cents immediately before the release.

January 31Declining imports and exports means little deficit changeThe decline in December 2016 imports and exports means New Zealand’s monthly trade deficit was little changed from the pre-vious corresponding period.

According to BusinessDesk, New Zealand had a $41 million trade deficit in December 2016, compared with a $42 million deficit in December 2015.

The deficit is less than the

$98 million anticipated by economists, according to a consensus forecast reports BusinessDesk.

Car buyers prioritising technology over brand or style: StudyNearly half of consumers (48%) in the US, say they would priori-tise in-vehicle technology over brand or body style, according to the 2017 Autotrader Car Tech Impact study.

Growing numbers believe certain safety technologies, including blind-spot detection and forward collision warning, should be standard on all vehi-cles sold in the US, according to the study.

Convenience and entertain-ment options, such as the latest connectivity systems offered by automakers, also rank high on consumers’ preferred list of technology features.

VW becomes world’s top selling car makerVolkswagen Group has over-taken Toyota to become the world’s best-selling carmaker, the first time the German com-pany has held the position.

Japan’s Toyota, which had topped sales for the past four years, sold 10.175 million vehi-cles globally in 2016.

That fell short of the 10.31 million sales which VW reported last week.

Four consumer trends fleet managers can’t afford to ignoreFleet management firm, Teletrac Navman, has compiled the four biggest automotive trends that fleet managers need to look at, which were showcased at 2017 the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

According to Teletrac Nav-man, “This year’s CES demon-strates that vehicle technology is no longer about cool gadgets in some far off utopian future. There’s real value in integrat-ing vehicles into an increasingly networked world to improve worker communication, safety and productivity. It’s a philoso-phy that’s worth remembering as you invest in new technology for your fleet.”


finalised and will see the new company work with a majority of Australian new and used car dealers.

The merger covers Cars-Guide, Dealer Solutions, Man-heim and Sell My Car to form Cox Automotive Australia and includes the finalisation of all necessary regulatory approvals.

For John Bailey, Cox Au-tomotive president of inter-national, the merger will be a watershed moment for the Australian automotive industry.

January 24Driverless car supplier sets up HQ in AdelaideLeading driverless car sup-plier, RDM Group, will open its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Adelaide, with future plans to develop an assembly facility in South Australia.

RDM Group – which is working on delivering the UK’s first driverless vehicles for use on public pavements, streets and private land – will open an office at Flinders Uni-versity’s Tonsley campus.

The office will be respon-sible for purchasing, sales and technology support as part of the firm’s expansion into Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

January 25Mazda unveils top dealers for 2016Fifteen Mazda dealers have been recognised for delivering exceptional customer service and customer satisfaction at the Mazda Master Dealer Awards 2016.

The awards are designed to acknowledge Mazda dealer-ships in areas like business processes, people develop-ment, sales results, financial management and customer satisfaction.

New South Wales and Victoria both had five dealer-ships recognised, while three Queensland and two South Australian dealerships also made the grade.

46 | AUTOTALK JANUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz

Australian dealer news at www.autotalk.com.auFO

LLOWAUSSIETALK

Max

Pic

ho

n

AutoTalk’s senior

Aussie journalist

Max Pichon looks

back at the major

stories in the past

month on our

Austrailian

AutoTalk website

– autotalk.com.au

AUSSIE TALK

DIARY

January 10Drive for online car loans growsCar dealers are being urged to recognise the benefits of the online car sales market and to adjust their marketing and sales tactics to suit.

A new report by ACA Re-search reveals customers are effectively using the internet to streamline the process of deciding on a shortlist of ve-hicles, narrowing down their final choice in an average four weeks.

Around two-thirds (66%) of Australians spend more than six hours researching vehicles online, resulting in a more in-formed customer who’s likely ready to buy, according to ACA Research.

January 11Subaru adds test drives to shopping centresSubaru has launched its first test drive pop-up stores featuring the new Impreza in major shopping centres.

The shopping centres of-fering the service are, Castle Towers in New South Wales, Highpoint in Victoria and Gal-leria in Western Australia.

A shopping centre environ-ment gets monthly floor traffic of 3.6 million people, accord-ing to the company.

Mercedes Benz Trucks cuts parts prices, expands rangeMercedes-Benz Trucks has re-duced the price of its parts to drive down the operating costs for its customers.

The company has timed the

pricing realignment to coin-cide with the roll out of its new Mercedes-Benz truck range, with price reductions of more than 30% on key items.

More than 10,000 items have been reduced. As part of the initiative, Mercedes-Benz is also expanding its product range of re-manufactured parts to more than 3000 items.

It has also reduced the cost of re-manufactured engines and transmissions by 30%.

January 13JLR Australia breaks sales record, more dealerships planned in 2017Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Aus-tralia, had its best ever full-year sales in 2016, selling 16,605 vehicles, up 26% on the previ-ous year.

JLR also has plans to open five more dealers in 2017 at a cost of $70 million.

It is JLR Australia’s ninth successive year of growth in sales, which is more than triple the 2010 figure. Jaguar brand sales in Australia were up a huge 132% on the prior year, retailing 3008 new models in 2016. This is the brand’s strongest ever full-year perfor-mance in Australia.

January 16Holden’s end date to local manufacturing unveiledHolden has revealed that October 20, 2017 will be the carmaker’s final day as a car manufacturer in Australia.

The final car built will be a Holden Commodore at its Elizabeth plant in Adelaide. It will mean an end to over 60

years of vehicle manufactur-ing by Holden at the site.

The company announced it will still make more than 30,000 vehicles in Australia before manufacturing ends in nine months.

Authorities crash $5.4M fake car parts ringTens-of-thousands of fake and counterfeit car parts were seized in a raid in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) late last week destined for Australia, say investigators.

The fake parts emulated and bore the trademarks of 15 different automotive marques.

The confiscation of over 500,000 fake and counterfeit car parts was the largest of its kind in Abu Dhabi’s history.

Raiding a warehouse and distribution centre in Abu Dhabi’s Al Ain city, the inves-tigation netted parts with a value of over AUD$5.4 million. The 21 truckloads of parts will be destroyed.

January 18EV sales plummet in AustraliaThe popularity of new elec-tric vehicles (EV) and hybrids among Australian buyers has taken a hit year-on-year, new VFACTS figures reveal.

In the private passenger car segment, there were drops in both electric vehicle and hybrid sales in 2016 compared to the previous year.

There were 65 EVs sold in this segment last year com-pared to 220 EVs sold in 2015 – a 69% drop.

In the non-private passen-ger car segment, sales dipped from 145 EVs in 2015 down to 101 in 2016 – a 30% drop year-on-year.

January 20Cox Automotive Australia finalises mergerThe Cox Automotive Aus-tralia merger has been officially


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AUTOTALK FEBRUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 47 AUTOTALK JANUARY 2017 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 47

DIESELTALK

DIESELtalk editor

Robert Barry

looks at the month

gone by on

dieseltalk.co.nz

-daily news for the

heavy transport and

equipment sectors.

Ro

ber

t B

arry

DIARY

Heavy transport and equipment newsat www.dieseltalk.co.nzFO

LLOW

January 4Ping pong balls lose dangerous goods classificationA decision by the United Na-tions means that ping pong balls are no longer to be classified as dangerous goods reports the UK-based Freight Transport Association (FTA).

Ping pong balls are made of celluloid or similar flamma-ble plastics, and were on the list of products included in ADR regulations for the inter-national carriage of danger-ous goods by road because of the deadly fumes produced if they catch light.

Amendments which came into force on January 1 saw them removed as a hazardous item.

January 9EROAD appointing North American PresidentEROAD has appointed Norm Ellis as its North American president, effective January 6.

Ellis is reporting to EROAD chief executive officer Steven Newman.

Ellis will lead the North American senior management team as the business gears up to meet the opportunity creat-ed by the new Electronic Log-ging Device (ELD) regulations. Newman says the appointment of Ellis as the company chases the ELD opportunities “is a real coup”.

January 10Isuzu Truck’s record 17th year at number oneIsuzu Trucks had it’s high-est retail year yet with 1253 registrations in 2016, marking it’s 17th consecutive year at number one with a new record to beat in 2017.

Hino Distributors was sec-ond on the table for 2016 with 641 units, only 19 short of its 2015 total of 660 registra-tions.

Previously, Isuzu Truck’s greatest number of trucks reg-istered was 1167 units in 2004.

January 11Restoring Wellington container operations in four to six months?Wellington’s CentrePort is developing a plan for interim works that could restore modi-fied container services within four to six months, according to its chief executive.

Port boss Derek Nind con-firmed this in a statement to Stuff yesterday.

Moving shipping containers by road and rail in and out of Wellington continues to grow while the CentrePort cranes remain still since the Novem-ber 14, quake.

January 17Potholing trucks causing a stink in InglewoodTrucks and trailers parking and creating potholes in the grass

verge of Moa Street, Ingle-wood has incensed residents who plan to petition the New Plymouth mayor for a remedy.

Moa Street is a heavy vehi-cle bypass which runs parallel with State Highway 3 through the Taranaki town.

The Taranaki Daily News is reporting that Moa Street residents Gary and Anne Meads say that trucks stopping or leaving trailers parked on the grass verge opposite their house are creating an erosion problem which is also contrib-uting to an odour problem.

January 19Companies not aware of obligations for drivers under HSW ActCompanies with small vehicle fleets already struggling to make sure they are compliant under the Health and Safety at Work Act are often not aware that a vehicle is a place of work as it is buried in the legislation.

The Act also requires that anyone who drives as part of their work must receive train-ing that is specific to the job, otherwise the company could be liable (or partly liable) in the event of an accident.

“Around 30% of all road ac-cidents are workplace related. They cause personal trauma, vehicle downtime, adminis-tration costs, lost opportuni-ties and increased insurance premiums,” says Darren Cot-tingham, director of DT Driver Training.

January 20Foodstuffs trialling electric Nissan delivery vansA trial of Nissan e-NV 200 electric delivery vans by the Foodstuffs grocery co-operative at New World and PAK’nSAVE supermarkets in 2017 is receiving funding sup-port from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority

(EECA).Foodstuffs is importing

28 Nissan e-NV 200 vehi-cles during 2017 from the European factory. Once fully charged the e-NV 200 is capable of travelling up to 150 kilometres at a time without generating either noise or emissions.

“This is the first time for New Zealand that a com-mercial electric vehicle fleet of this size is under trial,” says Foodstuffs North Island Ltd chief executive Chris Quin.

January 25KiwiRail considering 15% ‘earthquake’ levyKiwiRail is considering a levy on commercial users of the interisland ferries following the impact of the Kaikoura earthquake.

If implemented the levy will be 15%, imposed from mid-February and would ap-ply to commercial traffic in both directions.

The state-owned company told DIESELtalk consultation on the levy began in Decem-ber.

“In December KiwiRail pro-posed an earthquake levy for commercial vehicle customers on its Interislander service fol-lowing a review of the impacts of the Kaikoura earthquake on freight flows and operations,” a spokesperson says.

Road Transport Forum members are encountering customer resistance when ne-gotiating the recovery of more costs such as the proposed KiwiRail 15.5% earthquake levy.

www.evtalk.co.nz


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