A question people ask when buying a new car is - how popular is it?  You can start answering this by talking to friends and family or by seeing what’s out on the road or parked in your local carpark. But to truly understand what is popular you need to know what people are actually buying, so we have compiled a list of the top ten vehicles sold (across private and commercial sales) in 2018 based on new vehicle registrations. All of the top ten hold a 5 star ANCAP safety rating.

It’s likely to be of little surprise, but the popularity of utility vehicles continues, with five making the top ten. The Ford Ranger retained its crown for the fourth year in a row, shifting 9904 Utes - up 5.1% from the previous year. With nearly one in every six commercial registrations being a Ranger, this vehicle has truly changed the way Kiwis use this once farm-only vehicle, with it now also being used as a family wagon. The next most popular vehicle is the heartland favourite the Toyota Hilux with a total of 8086 registrations.  

In the bronze medal position, (but top selling passenger vehicle) is the faithful Toyota Corolla with 7300 registrations. The 12th generation Corolla was launched last year, with some significant changes, including a body that is longer, lower and wider than its predecessor.  It’s also well equipped with safety assist features.  It had outstanding ANCAP results for adult occupant protection, including for its AEB in city driving and its side impact safety, and was thus awarded the AA Driven NZ Safest Car Award.

SUVs continue to be the most popular segment of vehicle and this saw the Toyota RAV4 coming in 4^th with 4964 registrations (albeit the majority of these have been sold for the purpose of rentals). Rounding out the Top 5 is yet another commercial vehicle – the Mitsubishi Triton – with 4720 new vehicles registered.

Although it sounds like nearly every New Zealander owns a nice new ute, the most popular segment is still the Medium-sized SUV. The strong result was helped by the usual players; the Toyota Rav 4 (4964), Mazda CX-5 (3695) and the Kia Sportage (3289). But it’s not just the Medium SUVs leading the way, the compact SUVs saw a 21% increase in sales year-on-year.

Toyota remained the most dominant manufacturer with registrations topping 32,260 across passenger and commercial registrations, giving Toyota a combined 20 per cent share of registrations.

New Electric Vehicle (EV) registrations continued to climb, growing 41% from 2017 to 768 new registrations– the main contributor being the Hyundai Ioniq with 211 registrations. Its sibling, the Kona, is gaining popularity with 106 vehicles sold in 2018, despite launching halfway through the year. This figure now helps bring the NZ EV fleet (new and used) to a total of 11,748 vehicles. With the new regional fuel tax making its mark, we are sure to see continued growth in low-emission vehicles in 2019.

 Here are the Top 10 NZ new vehicles sold in 2018:

1. Ford Ranger
2. Toyota Hilux
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Toyota Rav4
5. Mitsubishi Triton
6. Holden Colorado
7. Mazda CX-5
8. Nissan Navara
9. Kia Sportage
10. Suzuki Swift