It looks like we have seen some strong growth in the number of new vehicles sold in 2012. It has proved a welcome break for the motor industry with the market now back to a level last seen before the global financial dramas.

New vehicle sales are up 19% from 2011 and sales exceeded 100,000 units for just the third time since 1989. To exceed the forecast sales predictions has been a real encouragement for the industry and that must delight everyone involved.

The actual total sales ended up at 100,795 units, made up from a mixture of new cars and new commercial vehicles.

Toyota, Ford and Holden, is how the first three finished, with Toyota the most popular make and the Corolla remaining the biggest selling model. Toyota continued its 25-year dominance in the New Zealand new vehicle market. They lead in both passenger cars with 14,992 units and commercial vehicles with 6,628 units. Which gave Toyota a total of 21,620 registrations for 2012. This was an all-time record of yearly sales for Toyota in New Zealand.

Ford in second place with 11,132 registrations and Holden in third position with 9,446 registrations.

In the smaller luxury car market BMW finished in first position with sales of 1,646 units ahead of Audi with 1,540 and Mercedes Benz with 1,094 units.

New car sales were at their highest level for five years and commercial vehicles enjoyed the best year for four years.

While this is a positive result, the market is really only returning to where it was back in 2008.

There were over 78,000 passenger vehicles imported into New Zealand in 2012. This is down by 3% from the previous year but not down as much as was predicted, despite the more stringent exhaust emission standards being imposed on all imported vehicles.

Key vehicle sales facts for 2012

New Cars sold: 76,871 (up 20% on 2011) Top models:
Toyota Corolla (5324)	Suzuki Swift (3321)	Holden Captiva (2506)

New commercial vehicles sold: 23,924 (up 16% on 2011) Top models:
Toyota Hilux (4182)	Ford Ranger (2815)	Nissan Navara (2586)

Used Imported Vehicles: 78,311 (down 3% on 2011)

Are you interested in vehicle sales in the US?

The recession that began in America in 2008 took its toll throughout the world. However few suffered a bigger hit than the automotive industry. Currently, things are looking up. New vehicle sales in the U.S. Auto Industry were 14.4 million units in 2012. This is an increase of 13% over 2011, based on a National Automobile Dealers Association report.

Area automotive dealers say that sales at their car yards increased in 2012 and they see no reason it won’t continue in 2013. For the vehicle dealers it’s been a steady climb back since the economy stalled in 2008. The future will hinge on consumer confidence, the unemployment rate and any new job creation.

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, the Ford brand was the best-selling nameplate for 2012, with sales of 2.1 million units, followed by Chevrolet with 1.8 million.

The Ford F-Series truck remained America’s top-selling vehicle in 2012, with sales of 607,854 units but the Toyota Camry was the overall top selling car.

The National Automobile Dealers Association reported that alternative fuel vehicles sales nationwide were 3.5 million units for 2012, up 13.4 percent from 2011. Of the 3.5 million units sold, 12,165 units were electric vehicles and 38,585 were plug-in hybrids.

Overall, vehicle sales in the US are projected to be around 15.6 million units in 2013, according to the Florida-based AutoNation Inc. AutoNation is the America’s largest automotive retailer.

January 2013