New Zealand Car Sales By Brand : 1990-94

The GM Holden Commodore was a popular car

In the 1980's, New Zealand deregulated it's economy and the initial effects were extremely negative. We see that in the chart below as both new and used car sales tumbled until 1993. The market then benefited by the reforms and sales rebounded with gusto in 1994, especially used imports.

The fight for the top spot was intense at this time, with Toyota managing to stave off Ford. Japanese brands were dominating with European marques were largely ignored. Taking Russian cars in exchange for NZ dairy products had run its course and Lada was now on the way out.

Make	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Toyota	15,450	11,827	11,291	13,163	12,974
Ford	13,343	8,651	10,265	11,626	12,174
Mitsubishi	9,982	7,249	6,441	6,354	8,156
Honda	6,066	5,087	4,531	5,023	6,173
Nissan	7,829	6,419	6,356	5,009	5,648
GM	6,780	4,731	4,409	3,934	5,451
Mazda	4,520	3,069	2,936	2,454	3,175
Subaru	2,362	2,331	2,030	1,460	1,162
Peugeot	1,052	380	501	686	1,019
Suzuki	870	945	649	745	1,001
BMW	555	460	515	602	764
Daihatsu	1,047	1,347	955	723	760
Hyundai	615	399	301	322	520
Citroen	218	162	185	248	390
Mercedes	123	93	125	163	348
Audi	153	85	102	104	343
Fiat	712	388	158	156	282
Land Rover	105	81	92	100	226
Saab	19	10	64	206	214
Lada	1,037	649	293	195	175
Volvo	107	37	30	69	155
MG Rover	320	266	72	79	137
Alfa Romeo	226	207	134	85	112
VW	109	35	11	34	94
Proton	65	212	160	83	29
Isuzu	190	61	50	23	13
Renault	215	193	123	22	10
Others	352	241	185	154	260
Total	74,422	55,615	52,964	53,822	61,765
Used Imports	85,324	47,351	39,146	43,841	123,853

Picture credit: Wiki/Frahnie.
Data source: MIA.

For sales previous from 1984-89, just click here.
The following in the series 1995-99 can be found here.