2019 New Vehicle Sales Start Soft Compared to a Year Ago

David Crawford, Chief Executive Officer of the Motor Industry Association says, “The January 2019 figures show the new vehicle market begins the new year down on January 2018. There were 13,938 vehicles registered in the month of January down 6.0% (896 units) in January 2018. Notwithstanding the lower result, it was still the second strongest January on record.”

​The total registrations of passenger and SUVs for January 2019 were down 7.9% (855 units) on 2018 volumes, and commercial vehicles were down by 1.0% (41 units) compared to the January 2018.

For the month of January, Toyota remains the overall market leader with 17% market share (2,312 units), followed by Ford with 11% (1,494 units) and Mitsubishi with 9% market share (1,248 units).

Toyota was also the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations 17% market share (1,718 units) followed by Mazda with 11% (1052 units) and then by Mitsubishi with 8% market share (803 units). The top selling passenger and SUV models for the month were the Toyota Corolla (669 units of which 428 were rentals) followed by the Mazda CX-5 (364 units) and the Suzuki Swift (351 units).

In the commercial sector, Ford regained the market lead with 22% (888 units) followed by Toyota with 15% (594 units) and Mitsubishi third with 11% market share (445 units). The Ford Ranger easily retained the top spot as the bestselling commercial model with 21% share (837 units) followed by the Mitsubishi Triton with 11% share (445 units) with the Toyota Hilux in unfamiliar territory in third also with 11% market share (434 units).

Vehicle segmentation for January 2019 continued recent trends with SUV’s and light commercials dominating the market. The top two segments for the month were SUV medium vehicles with 16% share followed by SUV Compact with 15% market share and then the Pick Up/Chassis Cab 4×4 segment with 14% market share.

“As 2019 gets underway, the economic environment that existed this time last year and before that has begun to fundamentally change, albeit slowly. However, levels of new vehicle sales while softer than this time last year, remain at historically high levels ” said Mr. Crawford.