New Zealand Car Sales By Brand : 1985-89

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

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

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

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

Data source: MIA.

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

1990-94 can be accessed here.