New Zealand Car Sales By Brand : 1995-99

The Ford Falcon was the best selling car in 1999

New Zealand new car sales were subdued during this period while used imports flourished. The economic reforms stalled somewhat due to external forces and that kept things muted. This was a time that the assembly industry ended. Ford and Mazda stopped it's operation in 1997, joined in 1998 by Mazda, Mitsubishi, Honda, Nissan and Toyota.

Was it good that NZ lost it's assembly industry? Well it was only ever from CKD kits and not real manufacturing so it wasn't cost effective. It could therefore only survive with protection and the government was removing that. It was only a matter of time.

Japanese brands seemed to consolidate their position even more, with only Ford and Holden offering much resistance. MG Rover and Land Rover were doing well and if combined exceeded the thousand mark. A few of the larger brands also did well in this time such as GM Holden, Nissan, Hyundai , Daewoo and Suzuki. In 1999, the top selling models were the Ford Falcon (4,311), Holden Commodore (3,511) and the Toyota Corolla (3,475).

Make	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Toyota	13,411	11,742	9,825	8,126	8,932
Ford	13,237	10,852	8,991	8,151	8,897
GM	7,656	7,148	5,740	6,181	6,282
Nissan	5,520	5,549	5,598	5,222	6,071
Mitsubishi	6,745	6,133	5,478	5,370	5,889
Hyundai	1,489	3,197	3,956	3,302	3,631
Honda	6,298	7,261	7,076	4,491	3,038
Daewoo	203	1,097	885	1,689	1,819
Suzuki	1,099	1,177	1,153	1,558	1,806
Subaru	1,532	1,131	917	1,366	1,684
Mazda	2,785	2,489	2,210	1,944	1,625
Daihatsu	588	593	987	1,298	1,128
BMW	962	910	797	740	893
Kia		120	277	241	687
Mercedes	357	323	395	440	653
VW	312	355	249	350	641
Peugeot	884	684	612	597	593
MG Rover	212	506	559	524	562
Land Rover	234	436	320	457	521
Chrysler	12	604	745	419	520
Audi	415	475	440	341	448
Volvo	123	140	167	150	313
Renault	48	130	84	85	252
Citroen	303	184	151	270	199
Alfa Romeo	113	219	128	137	189
Jaguar	138	88	107	85	171
Saab	241	199	93	123	145
Fiat	414	376	250	169	136
Lexus	65	45	120	95	117
Others	284	251	248	233	262
Total	65,680	64,414	58,558	54,154	58,104
Used Imports	80,976	111,769	97,041	99,937	131,118

Picture Source: Wiki/Jonathan Rabbitt.
Date source: MIA.

1990-94 can be accessed here.
2000-04 is found by clicking here.