Suzuki’s swift rise to top

There were 6,259 new passenger vehicles registered in New Zealand during February, as the market suffered an 18.2 per cent decrease from its 7,655 sales in the same month of last year.

Suzuki’s Swift, pictured, was last month’s top-selling model and it took out 7.8 per cent of the market after selling 487 units.

Its sales figures were up from 289 and by 68.5 per cent when compared to February 2022.

Next on the models’ chart was the MG ZS on 234 units for a market share of 3.7 per cent, despite its registrations slipping 8.6 per cent from 256 a year ago.

Hyundai’s Kona was third with 217 sales, or 3.5, per cent of the market, followed by the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross on 215 and 3.4 per cent, and Toyota’s RAV4 with 201 and a 3.2 per cent share.

The Swift was the only model in the top five to achieve a year-on-year increase and now heads the year-to-date figures with 813 registrations and 5.2 per cent of the market.

The Eclipse Cross and RAV4 are next on 636 and 587 registrations, respectively.

As for marques, Suzuki topped the table on 767 units for an increase of 43.4 per cent from 535 in February last year. Its share of last month’s new passenger-vehicle market came in at 12.3 per cent.

Toyota was second on 744 – down from 886 and by 16 per cent year on year to claim 11.9 per cent of last month’s market.

Hyundai came third with 562 registrations, while Mitsubishi and Kia rounded out last month’s top five after recording 474 and 396 sales, respectively.

Toyota leads the way in the year-to-date standings on 2,283 units and a 14.7 per cent market share, followed by Kia on 1,901 and 12.2 per cent.

Mitsubishi on 1,456 sales, Suzuki with 1,342 and Hyundai with 1,164 complete the top five for the past two months.