Talk Money: December 3

Tony Field (Paul Henry)
Tony Field (Paul Henry)

November was another record month for vehicle sales in New Zealand. That was due to the sales of commercial vehicles rather than passenger cars.

There were 11,620 vehicle registrations - an increase of four percent on November 2014.

Commercial vehicle registrations rose 12.6 percent from the same month a year ago, with 3,505 vehicles registered.

In contrast new passenger vehicle registrations were almost flat, with 8115 registrations, an increase of 0.6 percent.

The Motor Industry Association says 2015 looks like being another record year for the industry, with sales growth of 5.3 percent since January.

THE MARKET LEADERS

Toyota was the biggest seller, with 22 percent market share.

It was followed by Holden and Ford, with an 11 percent share each.

The biggest selling passenger vehicles were the Toyota Corolla and the Toyota Highlander. The largest selling commercial vehicle was the Ford Ranger.

VW'S SALES

Volkswagen maintained its number eight ranking, selling 369 vehicles last month.

But its overall sales were about 15 percent down last month compared to November of last year.

There were 286 VW passenger vehicles registered last month, compared to 309 in November 2014.

VW sold 83 commercial vehicles last month, compared to 125 a year ago.

Although sales are down on a year ago for VW, they improved from October when the company sold 253 passenger vehicles and 63 commercial vehicles.

For the year so far VW has sold 4756 vehicles, compared to 4972 by the end of November 2014.

THE DOLLAR

It has been a mixed 24 hours for the New Zealand dollar.

The Kiwi was down by over half a percent against the US currency, sitting at 66.32 cents at 7.15am.

It had slipped to 90.74 Australian cents.

The New Zealand dollar made gains against the pound, rising to 44.40 pence.

It was trading at 81.91 Yen and 62.64 Euro cents.

Watch the video for the full segment.