Fewer Japanese imports put brakes on used car sales

Turners Automotive Group says a lack of used car imports from Japan has meant total used car sales in December were down 6 per cent on the same month of 2017.

Registrations of used cars imported from overseas fell a much greater 21.6 per cent in the latest month, taking the annual fall in imports to almost 11 per cent.

Nevertheless, 1.13 million used cars were sold in 2018, down only 0.76 per cent on the previous year.

“Demand for second-hand vehicles is still strong. The fact that 2018 has remained flat on 2017, despite the massive decline in import sales, bodes very well for people looking to buy and sell cars domestically within New Zealand,” says Greg Hedgepeth head of the group’s second-hand cars and related financial services.

Data shows public-to-dealer, dealer-to-dealer and dealer-topublic sales were all positive in calendar 2018, although public-topublic sales fell marginally.

“The continuing demand from public buyers is shown in the figures by a solid increase of 2 per cent in dealer-to-public transactions — and the corresponding increase of publicto-dealer [transactions] due to trade-ins in 2018 versus 2017,” Hedgepeth says.

“With import supply hopefully continuing to stabilise, and strong increases in consumer confidence reported by ANZ-Roy Morgan, the start of 2019 is looking like it will be positive for the industry,” he says.

The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan survey showed its index at 121.9 points in December, up 3.3 points from November. A reading above 100 means consumers on average are positive about the economic outlook.