Australia / NZ Premium Marque Comparison 2014

Kiwis love the MINI

New Zealand and Australia are close in many ways. Many car makers view them as one market and only a few brands sell in one market and not the other. In this comparison, these makes are omitted. Data comes from VFACTS (Aus) and MIA (NZ). The Australian total vehicle market (including all commercial vehicles) is 8.7 sales for every vehicle sold in NZ. That ratio becomes the benchmark as to which brands are more popular in either country.

Premium brands: Infiniti sells in Australia (441 units) and not NZ but otherwise all other premium marques are the same in both nations. Green shows which models are more popular in NZ and yellow Australia. Australians buy many more of this sort of vehicle. I was very surprised by the MINI figure, as I was Lexus. MINI is only 4.5 times more popular in Australia, when the average is 8.7. Lexus is 12.6 times more often sold in Australia's favour, well over the average.

Brand	Aus	NZ	Ratio
MINI	2,570	569	4.5
Maserati	400	71	5.6
Audi	19,227	2,075	9.3
Jaguar	1,167	122	9.6
Porsche	2,812	289	9.7
BMW	22,722	2,132	10.7
Alfa Romeo	2,498	231	10.8
Volvo	4,693	421	11.1
Land Rover	10,106	885	11.4
Mercedes	31,895	2,596	12.3
Lexus	7,000	557	12.6
Lotus	71	3	23.7

Aussies like Lexus more

Luxury marques: Amazingly there is a sudden swing in NZ's favour in this category. Every luxury marque has a stronger ratio in NZ! Kiwis indulge themselves in super luxury for whatever reason. That Mclaren figure is unbelievable for NZ. If you want to see the only Mclaren NZ dealership, simply click here and have a look around. So while premium goes to Australia, NZ takes the uber luxury title.

Brand	Aus	NZ	Diff
McLaren	20	16	1.3
Morgan	16	9	1.8
Lamborghini	27	10	2.7
Bentley	135	26	5.2
Aston Martin	107	20	5.4
Rolls Royce	39	7	5.6
Ferrari	113	15	7.5