MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF AUTOTALK.CO.NZ – VOLUME 9 | ISSUE 4 | MAY 2018

T H E V E H I C L E D E A L E R ’ S N E W S S O U R C E

INSIDE3 7

GLOBAL VEHICLE LOGISTICS NZ · JAPAN · AUSTRALIA · UK · EUROPE | www.autohub.co

The market leader for over a decade.Shift to the Autohub Team and

experience the Autohub difference.

Confidence for the road ahead.

Mazda’s modern take on dealership model 3New car precinct for Botany 4Aftermarket booming in Taiwan 7The latest from Japan 30

Thousands of ve-hicles are hitting New Zealand

ports, causing some stress in the industry.

At least 26,000 vehicles arrived at Ports of Auckland in April, with about 30,000 expected in May, the Ports company says.

The high number of vehicles follows a slump in arrivals after the stink bug issue came to light.

Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association (VIA) chief executive David Vinsen says the numbers coming in are putting pressure on the port, transporters, compliance shops and dealers.

“Ideally the compliance shops would stay open longer. If they can, some don’t have the room anyway.

“We had a breach in the bios-ecurity supply chain and we didn’t have buffer capacity in reserve.

“First there was no stock, so no money. Now they (dealers) have got a huge amount of stock they have to pay for all at once.”

Autohub chief executive Frank Willett says the influx of vehicles

Stock surge hits industry

David Vinsen

Continued on page 17

A proposal to introduce “feebates” on imported vehicles could be disrupted by a lack of electric

vehicles, dealers say.In an effort to reduce car-

bon emissions, The Productiv-ity Commission is proposing to introduce extra fees on imported gas guzzling vehi-cles, while offering rebates low-emission petrol vehicles and electric vehicles.

A fuel economy standard would be needed to make the scheme work.

Genuine Vehicle Group (GVI) general manager Hayden Johnston says the group was involved in consultation with a government representative about the “feebates” proposal a few months ago.

He doesn’t think the proposal would hit his business too hard.

“If the Government implemented something like this it needs to be user-pays – at the time of registration,” he says.

“That’s a more guaranteed way to collect it rather than at the border.”

However, he notes in certain vehi-cle segments, there are limited electric options.

“People driving high emission vehicles are usually doing that for a reason, often because it’s fit for a purpose.

“I think we’re ten-plus years away from having a viable EV model for every application, like utes, SUVs and

vans.“I don’t think we’d

bring in more EVs as a result of this. We’re trying to do that [bring in more] regardless.”

Farmer Autovil-lage group managing director Michael Farm-er says the Tauranga-based new and used vehicle dealership would “do our best to adapt” if the feebate system is

Feebate success could rely on EV supply

Continued on page 16

Hayden Johnston

Michael Farmer

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New Zealand’s first permanent auto-motive retail concept store in a mall opened last month.

Mazda Connect by North Harbour Mazda is part of the Automotive Holdings Group of dealerships, developed with the support of Mazda New Zealand.

The interactive showroom in Silverdale will allow its customers to have greater involvement in the purchasing of their new vehicle, including building their personal-ised Mazda on a large interactive screen. A team of experts – who are not from AHG’s existing team, appear younger, and there is a 50/50 female to male split.

 AHG NZ country manager Michael Critchley explained at the opening; the dealership is more about the consumer than a traditional dealership.

“The philosophy behind this store is about giving the consumer an opportunity to be in control of their purchasing experience,” Critchley says. “The consumer is in control here, not us, not Mazda; it’s the consumer. And I dare say it’s probably one of the things that we’re going to see, even more so in the next three to five years as our industry evolves.”

There is no push to sell cars he suggests.“Our whole ethos is that we’re not here

to sell you a car,” Critchley notes. “However, we can supply you with information, we can supply you with an evaluation, and we will have vehicles here for test drives.

“We will be able to give people the assis-tance with price and accessories. And at the very end of that process, should they choose to, they can actually place an order with us – via a digital reply.”

Mazda New Zealand national marketing manager Glenn Harris says the automotive industry has been slow to evolve to changes in the retail world – and Mazda Connect is a big step forward.

“We, in our category, we need to do things differently. We need to be smarter with how we connect with our customers, and as a retailer, we need to evolve. And I think everything’s changing around us and we’re probably the last to change really, the auto-motive category,” Harris says. “I think this is a big step forward for us.

“Mazda Connect is probably the first embodiment, certainly in New Zealand, of how we believe the automotive retail model will evolve where we focus just as much on how we present our brand and where we present it as we do to what we build and the product we sell.”

Mall stores the future for car sales?

Continued on page 20

4 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

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East Auckland car buyers will soon be spoilt for choice with a new car

dealership strip quickly de-veloping on Te Irirangi Drive.

Andrew Simms dominates the area, with a new Mit-subishi dealership on-site alongside its Kia and Jeep brands, while its Great Wall and Haval showroom has moved to Greenlane.

However, competition isn’t far away as Manukau Toyota and Auckland City BMW develop sites on either side, while Mercedes Benz Botany and East Auckland Hyundai sit just around the corner on Ti Rakau Drive.

Andrew Simms dealer principal Matthew Wales welcomes the competi-tion.

“We’ve been on our own for years and sold a lot of cars. Having BMW and Toyota delivers a real car zone.

“As a car dealer, it’s ben-eficial for the customer to all be near each other.

“We need to make life easier for the customer. Peo-ple’s lives are getting busier.”

Wales says east Auckland was an obvious place to set up a new Mitsubishi dealer-ship.

“West Auckland is growing

faster, but east Auckland is already established with a big base of customers.

“It’s a very worthy area. There’s lots of immigration. It’s great for dealerships.

“There’s healthy population growth, ready to buy cars.”

And he doesn’t think the new Mitsubishi dealership will affect Auckland Motors Mit-subishi in nearby Manukau.

“Auckland Motors Mit-subishi do a fantastic job with the brand. They will go from strength to strength under AHG.

“I wouldn’t envision us opening in east Auckland having much impact on them. They’ve got a good customer base in south Auckland.”

Wales expects a lot of its customers will migrate to the new Botany dealership from the Andrew Simms Newmar-ket Mitsubishi dealership.

“A lot of people in east Auckland travel to central Auckland to buy a car and a lot of customers transit from east to central Auckland for servicing.”

Manufacturers need to consider more dealerships in different areas as traffic congestion worsens, Wales says.

“People won’t travel as far.”The new dealership

includes a cathedral roof, 90 lux lights and 36-bay

workshop.Auckland City BMW man-

aging director Ian Gibson says it sees the new BMW and Mini Garage site as a foothold into east and south Auckland.

“We chose the Te Irirangi Drive area because it covers further than just Botany. We wanted to establish a market in the eastern and southern suburbs.”

“There’s plenty of growth in the Flat Bush, Clevedon, Whitford and Bombay areas.”

Overall the site is 1.2 hec-tares and includes 24 service bays for BMW and four for Mini.

“Traditionally service is around 50% of our business. It’s pretty critical.”

Gibson also welcomes the competitive nature of having other manufacturers around.

“With the new develop-ment, there’s safety in num-bers. It helps when there’s another prominent owner on the other corner.”

Gibson says the dealer-ship will open early next year.

“We didn’t want to go too soon. The market develop-ment and timing was always about right for us in 2019.

And the new dealership will benefit both staff and customers that live in the area.

“Travelling around Auck-land city is almost impossible between 7am and 8am.”

Manukau Toyota chief ex-ecutive Michael Gapes says its new Botany dealership, which will also open in early 2019, has been a long time coming.

Dealership hub coming to east Auckland

Matthew Wales Ian Gibson

Continued on page 6

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“We’ve had the property out there for probably ten years. We’ve had a couple of false starts on it. It’s always been

pretty expensive, but housing has just rolled on and on out that way.

“It’s a pretty affluent area. We feel the need to have a retail presence in Botany

itself. It’s quite a good corner to be on.”

Once finished, it will be Manukau Toyota’s

seventh branch.Gapes expects

customers in the east to increase following the opening.

“We sell a lot of cars in the Bot-any and Howick areas, but we will sell more once we have a presence out that way. It’s more convenient for servicing and parts.

“We’re trying to get in front of the of customers on their door-step.”

Gapes says it is exciting the area is developing into a dealer-ship strip.

“We’re very pleased to be there with other manufacturers and dis-tributors. Being there in a cluster is better than being by yourself.

“Competition makes everybody raise their game.”

The new dealership will be very customer-focused, he says.

“Our new showroom will be fairly compact with lots of room for used cars, lots of room for cus-tomers to park and free charging zones for EVs.”

The service workshop includes bays for 16 cars and room for more in one of the carparks.

“In a modern dealership you want to be easy to deal with. Cus-tomers have got to be able to park right by the door and be greeted well.

“We want them feeling comfort-able when they come in.”

Manukau Toyota will move its existing service centre on Ti Rakau Drive to the new premises.

“We specialise in fast servicing, so the customer can wait and have coffee or tea and do some work.

“One thing we are noticing is people are happy to wait, which wasn’t previously the case.

“The main thing is to grow the business and customer base.”

Michael Gapes

Dealership hub coming to east AucklandContinued from page 4

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With 1306 exhibitors and 3707 booths the Taipei AMPA show is mind-boggling.

 Twelve New Zealand companies joined a VIA-sponsored visit to Taiwan last month, and VIA chief executive David Vinsen was one of the guest speakers.

 Covering two vast exhibition centres, the Taipei show covered not only parts and accesso-ries, but also electric vehicles, automobile electronics, intelligent transport, motorcycles, car tuning and car care products.

 With a population of 25.5 mil-lion, Taiwan punches above its weight in research and  develop-ment of not only aftermarket auto parts but also in original equip-ment for a number of major car manufacturers in Asia, Japan and the USA.

 Vinsen told visitors to the Tai-pei show that New Zealand was a potential market for Taiwanese aftermarket product, as well as EV batteries and all ancillary paraphernalia.

“It was the third such event that VIA had sponsored - the first two were to Mainland China - this time it was to China’s competitor in Taiwan, Vinsen told Auto Media Group.

 “There was the same mix of association members and industry figures this time as in the first two events, only this time we weren’t anticipating the arrival of Chinese vehicles in New Zealand, with homologation issues to sort out, hence two NZTA officials were part of the group to China.”

 Vinsen says that the group to Taiwan made many useful con-tacts and connections and “busi-ness will undoubtedly result”.

 “It was also useful to see that

we are not alone in New Zealand, with some of the things happening on the automotive scene.

Auto parts and accessories show is vast

David Vinsen

Continued on page 8 Light and more lights.

8 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

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 “In terms of a finished product that might be sale-able in our market then not so much here.

 Paul O’Connor of OEM Audio in Christchurch, who is a regular visitor to trade

shows, says that he was interested to see how the Taiwanese did it.

 “There was some reasonable product, but it was more at a component level. If you wanted any type of switch or casing

for a switch or any other compo-nent then you were well catered for.

 “In terms of a finished prod-uct that might be saleable in our market then not so much here.

 “Having said that we met a couple of EV battery manufac-turers and are reasonably con-fident of having battery options for our market in the next six months,” adds O’Connor.

Lloyd Wil-son, VIA’s South Island chair says the trip was valuable in many ways

“The oppor-tunity to get to know and spend time with the other participants was great.

“The displays were extremely well done and thought provok-ing - the range of products was fantastic,

“I also built up some valu-able contacts, and some of them have already been in contact,” adds Wilson.

 

Auto parts and accessories show is vastContinued from page 7

Paul O’Connor

Lloyd Wilson

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10 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

FINANCE & INSURANCEFEATURE

If people like you and trust you, they will look for reasons to buy from you.

I heard that some years ago and it has proven to be right so many times. It doesn’t mean everyone will buy, but more will, … and more often.

The first thing you need to do is develop a personal relationship with your customer. You have to be custom-er-focussed and, before rolling into a sales presentation, work on the soft skills of building that very important customer rapport.

The first step is to listen more than you speak. You are learning nothing when you are speaking, and remem-ber … “listen and silent have the same letters”. When you do speak, make it relevant to the customer.

Understanding the customer’s criteria and staying interested is im-perative. During qualification, when looking at the trade and on the test drive, the following are some good questions to ask:-• What’s important to you with

regard to the purchase of a new vehicle?

• How long have you owned your current vehicle and has it been good and reliable?

• What type of protection poli-cies did you buy for your current vehicle?”

• Did you have a need to claim on the policies?

• How long are you intending to keep your new vehicle?”

The key here is to simply “plant the seed” for the mechanical breakdown insurance (MBI) policy to be re-introduced later on.

When starting to complete paper-work (whether you are in a dealership with a designated business manager to complete the paperwork, or a smaller dealership where you’re doing it all yourself) another good “initial” ques-

tion, after congratulating the cus-tomer on their purchase decision, is “where are you taking your new car this weekend”. This question does two things, firstly it reinforces ownership and, secondly, provides a talking point

from which you can learn more about your customer and build that all-important rapport.

NB: When you ask a customer this question please remain focussed

on their answer and let it lead you on to more questions, and genuine interest, in where they’re going, what they’re doing there and the common ground you can build on that informa-tion with them.

Remembering that we’re dealing with a cash customer here, now is the time to introduce the benefits of MBI.

“Mr Customer, you mentioned earlier that (you had a policy, ... or, you had claimed on a policy, … )” - reference what your customer had mentioned earlier and make it relevant to the offer-ing of your MBI policy.

“Most customers today keep their cars for about three years, and take out this type of protection to pay a small amount today to protect themselves

against the much bigger cost of me-chanical and electrical repairs that can occur tomorrow, or any time over the next three years of ownership. What’s more, the policy provides the additional benefit of 24/7 roadside assistance.

“For a small cost of just $_____ , which equates to just $__ per week, I strongly recommend the benefits of this protection to you. The advantage to you is peace of mind, and most of our customers want just that … peace of mind.”

A customer will respond to this in one of three ways – acceptance, question or objection.

Dealing with acceptance and ques-tions are straight forward. Dealing with objections is where most salespeople feel challenged. However, once you know and understand there are only six objections relating to MBI, your con-fidence and ability to overcome those objections improves significantly.

Let’s look at those objections and some suggestions on how to overcome them: (see table)

Once you have addressed the ob-jection it’s important then to reinforce the value of MBI and recommend this type of protection for your customer.

Finally, disclosure is a very important

By Steve Owens of Provident Insurance

Selling mechanical breakdown insurance to a cash customer

Continued on page 11

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 11

FINANCE & INSURANCEFEATURE

Objection Overcoming the Objection

Had one before - it didn’t cover my claim

Who was cover with? What was issue? Explain policy coverage.

Had one before and never claimed on it

Like any insurance, it’s bet-ter to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. You’ve been lucky, .. so far.

My partner’s a mechanic

Great, they will understand the value of MBI then and the fact that labour can be the least part of the cost, especially with expensive parts pricing continuing to increase.

I’m covered by the Consum-er Guarantees Act

The CGA does provide a level of cover, but there are a number of benefits provided by MBI over and above the CGA that provide more protection, certainty of cover and an easy claims process to get your vehicle back on the road quickly, with the least cost and inconvenience to you.

Are you saying this vehicle will break down.

Absolutely not. Comment on your commitment to selling vehicles in good merchantable condition. Comment on the fact that three years is a long time to own a vehicle and with the thousands of mechani-cal and electrical compo-nents that can fail it just makes sense to pay a small premium now to cover the vehicle for the next three years.

Costs too much

This is the underlying objec-tion of all objections, and we know this because if you were providing the protec-tion for free, your customer would not object. Break the premium down to show the weekly cost of the premium over the term of cover you are providing. Explain how it really is low-cost protec-tion, “so doesn’t it make sense to pay the small amount today to cover the unexpected costs of mechanical and electrical breakdown that could oc-cur tomorrow”.

Continued from page 10

requirement of your obligations selling insurance policies to your customers today. To assist you, and ensure compliance with this requirement, Provident Insurance has developed an Insurance Disclosure Document. For more information on how to better maximise your opportunities to sell insurance policies please contact me direct on 021-947752 and I’ll be happy to help.

12 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

FINANCE & INSURANCEFEATURE

Back in 1994 when I financed my first car we didn’t have

the modern advancements considered the norm today. I was a little younger and I had been driving various different death traps for far too long.

I decided to buy a brand new Citroen AX (I know); we completed an applica-tion, faxed it away to some unknown location, and two and a half days later a man from the dealership called to say that my application had been approved.

Needless to say that is a thing of the past. Over the past few years CFS Finance has been on an innovation journey partnering with some of the world’s leading technology solution providers to improve our systems and processes.

This has changed the face of how a New Zealad-owned niche finance com-pany delivers its unique of-fering to the dealer network.

Today the vast majority of people have internet banking either on their mobile phone, tablet, with access to this information at the push of a button. Here at CFS Finance we have been utilising this accessibility via the data cap-ture portal Credit Sense. This has enabled our customers, dealers and ultimately lend-ers to speed up the applica-tion and decision process.

Analysing a bank state-ment can be complex; Credit Sense has allowed this process to be consistent, accurate and seamless every

time. The overriding benefits are a more coherent afford-ability assessment, giving reliability and eliminating the guess work all in a shorter amount of time.

Another of our recent technology partners is Cen-trix. Centrix delivers con-sumer and company credit reports similar to Equifax, but with some significant added benefits.

Two key benefits that we

find essential are Positive Reporting and Smart ID.

Whether you are changing your power provider, getting a credit card or buying a home, most of us will apply for credit at one time or another.

How you make your pay-ments is now an important factor because recent law changes have allowed this to be measured.

The key to Positive Re-porting is in the name - if your utility or credit card payments are made on time then this works in your favour. However, should they be infrequent, or lack consistency this will be reflected in the report, and probably lead to an unsuc-cessful application.

Since the introduction of the AML Act in 2013 custom-er verification has become a crucial part of the compli-ance process. Using Smart ID through Centrix we can now

digitally ID applicants allow-ing us to on-board them easier whilst also fulfilling AML due diligence obliga-tions at the same time.

Once we have joined the dots and put the approval in place we have to bring the customer on-board. Here at CFS Finance we have been using an electronic sign-ing process called E-Doc through Secured Signing for nearly two years. During this

time we have seen a substantial improve-ment in the turnaround time of loan agreement signing, with far greater accuracy in both settle-

ment and compliance. Dealers and custom-

ers have the ability to sign legally binding documents anywhere, anytime and on any device. This in its self is a real game changer.

We are regularly getting a dealer and two borrowers to sign a loan agreement, in the middle of the day in three separate locations. This is why we have now found that 95% of our loan agreements are signed in this way.

Secured Signing reduces the need to print high vol-umes of needless paperwork, saving time, money and also reducing the carbon foot print of any business.

The next stage of CFS Finance’s technological jour-ney is happening now. We are in the process of building a dealer portal and customer interface with the help of Sales Force. Our platform will condense all of our current IT tools into one central hub

while at the same time con-necting everyone involved in the process.

Our chief operating of-ficer Chris Stephenson says: “Most dealer portals are glo-rified data capture tools or online application forms. CFS Finance’s new portal will be a fully integrated CRM system where we’ll be able to drive sales, increase conversions and minimise the drop off of clients”.

For dealers this will mean that we will become your remote business manager, the focus here is improved conversion and penetration rates; ultimately helping to sell more cars, finance and insurance.

Customers can apply via the web or app, and dealers directly via the portal. Ap-plication status tracking is a key goal, as is continual and transparent communication for all parties. This will be through SMS, email or app status updates.

Typical first tier finance approval times are under an hour, even less if the ap-plication has been auto-ap-proved. When the applicant has a “dented” financial history this can slow things somewhat.

Only last week our team assessed, approved and had the customer driving away in under an hour. Once our portal is online this type of situation will be the new standard for a second tier finance provider.

For further information please contact, Liam Mul-rooney @ CFS Finance.

How CFS Finance uses technology to approve more loans faster

Liam MulrooneySales ManagerMOB: +64 275 747599liam.mulrooney@cfsfinance.co.nz

http://www.cfsfinance.co.nz

14 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

FINANCE & INSURANCEFEATURE

Tell us a little bit about Kiwi Car Loans

Kiwi Car Loans is a finance broker. We have a huge panel of lenders, from special discounted low rates to assist first tier clients all the way through to third tier facilities. For a dealer without a first-tier finan-cier we act as their busi-ness manager for the full spectrum of clients. For dealerships who may have some facilities, short staffed or simply don’t have the time to arrange the finance, we can assist.

What makes Kiwi Car Loans different?

We are able to offer a broad range of finance prod-ucts, some not available to

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Car Loans take the hassle out of finance for you and your customers with a streamline and integrated approach to customer service and loan application processing.

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 15

FINANCE & INSURANCEFEATURE

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16 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

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implemented. “So long as it’s a simple

and easy to understand sys-tem – that’s the key to it.”

He believes the dealer-ship, which also caters for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, would be “relatively balanced”.

But Farmer says New Zealand doesn’t have enough EVs yet to centre a feebate system around them.

“I think introducing it be-fore 2025 would be crazy.” 

Farmer says the tipping point for EVs in New Zea-land will probably be around 2022-2025, so the system could be implemented after that.

“The tipping point will be when someone walks into the showroom who would

never have considered an EV before, compares the price of a petrol vehicle with an EV and buys the electric,” he says.

Auto Court in Dunedin imports both used electric and petrol/diesel powered vehicles, and its family own-ership is uncertain just how the feebate proposal would affect the long-running busi-ness.

 Director Nelson Cot-tle says he will be interested to see how the scheme might look if and when it becomes reality.

However, Cottle acknowl-edges the dealership is strug-gling to get good used elec-tric stock from Japan now

because of high demand world-wide, particularly for Nissan Leafs.

 Toyota New Zealand chief executive Alistair Davis says

the greatest impact will be if the scheme influences demand for vehicles outputting less emissions.

 “Overall the ob-jective of the scheme is focused on reduc-ing vehicle emissions,

which is a primary focus for the automotive industry, and in-line with Toyota’s na-tional and global objectives. 

“The proposed scheme also supports our expan-sion of hybrid vehicles within our range, and plug-in hybrid models like the new Prius Prime.  A feebate could potentially provide better visibility to the end customer and increase the importance of emission levels when con-sidering a vehicle purchase.”     

Tradeable credits?Another issue that could

impact how importers bring in cars is a “tradeable credits scheme, which is report-edly being worked on by the Ministry of Transport.

Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association (VIA) chief executive David Vinsen says his understanding of the proposal is it would be used to influence which models importers are bringing into the country.

“If one importer was bringing in a whole bunch of Nissan Leafs that are way below the maximum [fuel] average they would get credits that have a tangible value.

“They could then be sold on to another importer who wants to bring in a Hummer.”

However, the dealers spoken to were reluctant to speculate on a tradeable

credits scheme until they knew more about it.

 Toyota NZ was also keen to find out more.

“Our net vehicle emissions across new vehicles sold is ok, but the introduction of more hybrid vehicles will bring this down minimising any tradeable debt,” Davis says.

Industry impact Whatever happens with

the feebates and tradeable credits proposals, Vinsen says the changes will influ-ence which vehicles come into the country.

“It’s going to skew the model range available.”

Motor Industry Associa-tion chief executive David Crawford is welcoming debate on the issue, spurred on by the Productivity Com-mission’s report.

“When it comes to transport, New Zealand is a technology taker. How we leverage the importation of low carbon technological innovations is important, especially given the high volume of old imported vehicles that are on aver-age one to two generations behind technologies found in new vehicles.”

Associate transport minister Julie-Anne Genter acknowledges discussions are taking place.

“I’ve asked officials to look at a wide range of options to make low-emission petrol and electric vehicles more affordable and accessible to New Zealanders.

“This will include looking at the options put forward by the Productivity Commission.

 “Officials will engage widely with the motor vehicle industry and public on these all of issues be-fore any policy decisions are made.”

Feebate success could rely on EV supplyContinued from page 1

Nelson Cottle

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 17

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means the company’s workload is “a bit busier than usual”.

However, Willett says it’s still business as usual.

“The transporters and compliance centres will possibly need to consider how to handle the expected higher volumes.

“We expect the normal stress points to appear which are usually a shortage of space and for some, cash-flow issues – there’s nothing particularly new with this situation.”

2Cheap-Cars chief executive Eugene Wil-liams says his business hasn’t been hit with any storage issues due to the volume increases.

“We’ve got acres of storage yard space in Mt Wellington. We are always prepared.”

However, he says the situ-ation could weed out some dealers from the industry.

“I think in general, the glut of cars coming in will cause havoc for dealers who are undercapitalised.”

Ford spokesman Tom Clancy says it will take two or three months for the company to get back to normal, follow-ing delays caused by stink bugs and then the glut of cars that are now arriving.

“We’ve been coping by working closely with our deal-ers to maximise the stock we have in country, with dealers working closely with other dealers swapping current stock for stock still due in, for exam-ple.”

Industry working together to get cars unloaded: Ports of Auckland

Ports of Auckland is using a range of methods to deal with the large number of vehicles arriving.

A key element has been working with all partners in the supply chain to move toward a 24/7 model of operation, spokesman Matt Ball says.

“One example is that we’ve made changes to our rules to encourage more weekend work.”

It has also had to work around

stricter biosecurity rules following the stink bug issue.

“The stink bug issue has significantly increased the time some ro-ro ships spend in port, as many have to undergo fumigation before unloading.

“This has caused congestion at the ro-ro terminal. We’ve found a novel way around that, by using a new – but not yet commissioned – berth at our con-tainer terminal where ro-ro vessels can be fumigated before going to the ro-ro terminal for unloading.

Stock surge hits industryContinued from page 1

Frank Willett

Eugene Williams

Matt Ball

18 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

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Crushing CarizmaI

t’s a grim outlook facing Australia’s network of im-ported vehicle dealers and

workshops in a post-Road Vehicle Standards Act era.

Scores of small businesses are likely to fold when the legislation passes, effectively strangling their line of in-come, the Australian Import-ed Motor Vehicle Industry Association says.

John Meertens is one of those dealers, a bloke who just loves cars, new or old, weird and wonderful. But his enthusiasm for the game has taken a turn now that loopholes are tightening and pathways are being broken up.

AutoTalk heard his side of the story at the coalface as he neared the end of pack-ing up his workshop, tucked away behind bustling Rich-mond in Melbourne.

Only three cars remain in the desolate space. Cables hang from the roof, ceil-ing panels are missing and there’s a void where a hoist once stood, not only as a means to an income but also as a symbol of the count-less import businesses being dismantled.

Up the back are two luxury-appointed people-moving Toyota Alphard Hybrids and an immaculate, supercharged 1987 MR2, their fates unknown.

Meertens says the draft legislation has been hard to swallow.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and was previously in a building twice the size as this until two years ago when the market dried up.

“There’s doom and gloom in all the big import deal-ers in Melbourne; they’re already struggling now and I can’t see how the new rules are going to help.

It doesn’t open the mar-ket up to much you can see them selling a lot of.”

Meertens is not the only one shuttering up windows and selling off tools, some-thing he was literally in the process of doing with a set of alloy wheels during our meeting.

“Right now there are liter-ally only about five vehicles worth importing and selling in the market, but when eve-rybody does it, margins are forced down and it becomes hard to make money.

“There are some big import dealers who I thought were going to survive [while they] watch everyone else close.

“I know one in Bayswa-ter who I thought was big enough to adapt and gear it up; I know another in Moorabbin, probably one of the biggest in Melbourne, who must have nearly 200 cars, well, they’ve stopped importing to just deplete stock,” he says with an air of defeat.

But Meertens, in the spirit of never giving up, says he’ll keep his hand in the game.

He has worked in Japan for four years with an export company and has motoring enthusiasm coursing through him

“We’ve been getting by selling Alphards but they’re over a hundred grand and

John Meertens the market is very specific – they’re very hard to sell,” he says.

“For my next venture, a long-time friend of mine in Japan and I are working together on opening up a market in Thailand of all places.”

While Meertens has adapt-ability on his side, he says some simply do not and he remembers what happened last time.

“I was around when the previous scheme changed to RAWS in 2001 and back then it was much more open but 75% of businesses closed.

“I can see the same thing happening again.”

Meertens offers a brief tour of the place, which doesn’t take long because there’s very little to look at. A whiteboard still hangs on the wall, with a list of “times

Continued on page 18

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 19

NEWSTALKNEWSTALK

to beat” on various tasks he assigned to his five departed staff, most of whom were themselves just trying to make a start in the auto trade.

There’s not exactly much sign of a lucrative business model.

According to the white-board, his team could modify windscreen wipers in 24 hours and access a firewall in 19. A to-do list of compli-ance requirements for every car is scribed in the middle.

It’s hard to see how this quaint, grassroots workshop could pose a threat to the formidable automotive retail industry.

Most of the importers who’ll be affected this time around, Meertens says, are hardly big fish.

“They’re all little guys with ten cars on the lot - if they’ve gotta do hybrids, it’s going to take a huge cost to make it a viable business, unless you become a hobbyist selling from your backyard, and there will be a few, but people are going to leave in droves.

“Anyone who doesn’t have RAW certification and wants to do imports has no chance.

“You need to have your destiny in your own hands; you need to comply your own cars and it’s a cost. We charge on compliance which is often the margin on one car.

“Anyone without a RAW is finished. If you’ve built your business around campervans, you’re done.

“The big players will downsize and the little guys will disappear.”

With the changes to the Specialist Enthusiast Vehi-cle Scheme (SEVS), which means an import will have to comply with at least one of

six stipulated criteria, there might be a glimmer of hope, Meertens says.

“The new import laws are all about low emissions,” he says.

“The power-to-weight ratio (criteria) is so ridiculous it’s knocked off sports cars and basically leaves hybrids as the only real, viable op-tion.”

But even importing low-emission vehicles is fraught with barriers to a solid busi-ness case, particularly if that’s not what you want to sell nor what you understand.

“I’m not a fan of the ‘green’ thing and the disabled vehicle market is too tricky,” he says.

“If you go through the categories, the only real thing they can push is hy-brids. But if one of these ve-hicles has a problem, where do I take it? I would need to learn hybrid technology.”

There are plenty of hybrid potentials in Japan that meet that SEVS criteria but Meertens says he can’t compete with a new vehicle “unless it’s what Japan call a ‘super ultra low emission vehicle’.

“If the regulations opened up to lots of hybrids, there might be some decent busi-ness if you had a good hybrid mechanic.”

Firing Meertens’ passion for the sports cars his small network of customers want to buy is not going to be easy. Or cheap.

“The only way you’ll be able to bring in a decent sports car is under the 25-year rule,” he says.

He’s not expecting much to change in the proposed criteria.

“They’ve made the power ratio so high that when a new car comes out in Japan with a 208kW limit as

advertised, they’ve effec-tively eliminated our ability to prove it’s any higher.

“A Nissan GTR, with 130kW per tonne, doesn’t get close to their criteria, so they know they’ve basically wiped out all new sports cars.

“They’ve put the ratio there to look like they’re al-lowing something but we all know it’s knocked them all on the head.”

Meertens expects a resur-gence of the most desirable sports cars of the 1990s as the 25-year mark moves closer.

“The 25-year rule really only allows something like an R32 GTR or Honda NSX, which has already started making them even more desirable,” he says.

“People have already started storing them in Japan so they can bring them in when the 25-year rule comes around.”

But again, through a disheartened grin, he says he knows it will be short-lived because that’s the nature of the game.

“You’ve got a window of about six months to make good money before the mar-gin just gets trimmed so low as the market floods and it becomes really hard work.

“The prices rise so high in Japan - like an NSX at $100,000 - there’s not a lot of people with that kind of money for a 25-year old car.

“As a dealer it’s hard to compete for such a small pool and it becomes unvi-able very quickly.”

Meertens would like to see a much closer five-year ruling, or thereabouts, with dealers being allowed to import vehicles. He reckons then everybody could’ve had their objectives met – safer, newer cars, a younger aver-age fleet and fewer dirtier, older more polluting cars on our roads – without having to snuff out an entire sec-

tor’s flame.“I went to all the RAWS

meetings and wasted a lot of time and money talking to the department,” he says.

“Most countries have a one-year rule; sometimes a five-year rule is common. I was suggesting to follow that rule plus with a variant rule - if the car’s not sold here, is over five years old... then allow us to do it.

“It’s shooting us in the foot.

As a result, and for the foreseeable future, Meertens is out.

“I’m taking an indefinite break from the car sales business. I’m going to see how the market reacts to the new rules.

“There might be some-thing that comes up which I haven’t thought of, but I highly doubt it.”

He will remain a quiet liaison in the import industry. But there’s a tenacious fire in his eyes that tells you he won’t stay down for long.

It was a bittersweet meeting as Meertens boxed up what remaining bits and bobs he had left in the small space that had clearly brought enjoyment to a select few.

“There are a few among us who don’t want the lat-est and great, capped-price servicing or the bells and whistles.“

Meertens’ few custom-ers and their mates were the young and irrational, the tuners and modifiers, the drivers who want gearknobs and clutch pedals, the con-noisseurs and aficionados, or simply the young-at-heart in their twilight years.

These people had a nar-row pathway to own the car they had as a poster on their wall as a kid, all thanks to little businesses like Carizma Cars and the passion of people like John Meertens.

Continued from page 17

Crushing Carizma

SHOWROOMNEW VEHICLE INDUSTRY AND PRODUCT NEWS

20 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

Silverdale will not be the only Mazda Connect store, with the store used to test the concept and as a tem-plate.

“This is a test case for us, really just to understand how we can mobilise the brand outside the dealer-ship and put it in an envi-ronment where people are and where they live and where they shop,” Har-ris says. “And I think what you can see here today is a pretty rich canvas that we would look to replicate in other sites around the country.”

Wellington will be next, with a site already secured in the central business area.

“It’s a great location for this sort of concept,” he says. “The model for Wel-lington for us would be to get amongst the cafes, get amongst the sort of water-front society.”

Mazda New Zealand paid part of the cost to develop the store with AHG, though Harris notes being at a small-er mall made the cost more affordable.

“We’ve both gone into it with a reasonable financial investment. The numbers are obviously in confidence, but it’s not insignificant,” Harris says. “Being in Silverdale is obviously a less intensive in-vestment for us than, say, the central city, but still a nice environment for us to create a really nice space.”

The future of car sales?Is the mall-based store

the future of automotive retailing? One company that would argue so is Tesla, which uses such factory-owned retail outlets as the core of its network in the United States and some other countries.

Though in Australia, and now New Zealand, it appears to be sticking to a more traditional dealer footprint. Its Auckland store, which is still under construction, is in a new retail strip on Karangahape Road, though is not within a mall environ-ment. It is also only a few hundred metres along from Grey Lynn’s well established dealer strip.

Honda New Zealand

general manager sales, Peter Ashley, says Honda has investigated the possibility of using mall-based stores as a way of providing geographic coverage across Auckland. It has already trialed a trailer-based brand installation at the Botany Town Centre.

“We have investigated it, and it is on our radar,” Ashley explains. “We have looked at different shopping malls in the greater Auck-land to see if it is a viable proposition for us.”

Honda is very keen on Botany, though space avail-ability is an issue. If it could get a suitable spot it would trial it.

“We know the sort of response we got from the pop-up trailer - and from a branding exercise point of view we know that is viable. The question is, is it viable from a sales perspective - and only the customers vote counts there.”

Wallis Dumper, managing director of Subaru New Zea-land, says Subaru Australia - both companies are part

of the Inchcape group - has learnt a lot from its mall-store ventures.

“We discovered quite early that there are quite a few traps in it and the great thing is that Subaru Austral-ia and our Inchcape retail operations are sharing the learnings,” Dumper explains.

“Several things have im-pacted the original concept that’s started in Melbourne and the solutions to those

have been interesting to learn from. We are not prepared to share those learnings other than with our Subaru dealers in New Zealand.

“The future of auto retailing may well change in the future and the great thing is at the moment we have the benefit of learning from what’s happening with Subaru Australia. Learn-ing from Inchcape’s various initiatives globally with all sorts of brands and then add to that the things that will inevitably be learnt here with this Mazda initiative, plus say Toyota’s changes and its obvious that change will evolve.”

Dumper says the Austral-ian operations are - to an extent - working well.

“What has been estab-lished and modified in Aus-tralia as it stands is working well. You can’t measure it with anything that’s like for like in auto, so some people struggle with how to measure the success,” he explains.

“But if you were the owner of a dealership that had high street foot traffic without the massive land investment a traditional car dealership needs with no parking has-sles, hardly any staff and no service or parts department to hide any inefficiencies – you’d have to say they are pretty effective.”

Are such stores the future for car sales?

“Maybe ? Possibly? I look more to the Apple store concept that actually is there to service existing customer needs, yet are super suc-cessful so far. But they too will evolve so I believe auto retailing may change (needs to modify itself) but there will remain a desire and need for our traditional dealer, as we see them today, for quite some time yet. I just cant tell you how long,” adds Dumper.

“But you can be sure that some ideas will work great and some will not be exactly ‘career enhancing’ for the brand marketing managers or network development teams who bet the bank on revolutionary change,” he notes. “The brave who make these things happen might get a jump on others but having said that this business is so competitive others can catch up quick.”

Retail aspect not newWhile Mazda’s claim of

being the first permanent re-tail store in a mall is unchal-lenged, it is not the first time car distributors and dealers have had a presence in the public hubs.

A number of brands have taken the jump on pop-up operations, notably Suzuki and Ford at the huge Sylvia Park mall. Dealers have taken the step as well, with Gazley

Mall stores the future for car sales?Continued from page 3

Continued on page 21

SHOWROOMNEW VEHICLE INDUSTRY AND PRODUCT NEWS

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 21

There has always been two Mercedes-Benz divisions – one for

passenger cars, the other for commercial vehicles – but the new X-Class ute range is where those tribes of the Daimler nation merge.

The X is the commercial division’s baby, developed primarily as another arrow in the quiver of a group totally dedicated to making and selling heavy trucks and light vans. However, it’ll be sold by a mixture of 11 passenger car and commercial dealers in New Zealand, a reflection perhaps of the way double-cab utes can now seamlessly cross market boundaries to meet both business and recreational needs.

The drive program of the New Zealand debut of the three-model X range showed that the Mercedes entry into our most popular vehicle segment is perhaps the most skillful of all medium-sized pick-up trucks at satisfying the diverse demands of con-tractors, farmers, foresters, fishers, and families.

The comfort, refine-ment, and safety felt incred-ibly close to one of Merc’s passenger cars, yet the X remained a ‘tough truck’ in terms of what it could do.

It can carry 1.1 tonnes in one of the largest cargo trays in the class, tow up to 3.5 tonnes, and the off-road performance of the 4wd variants is potentially right up with the real “mountain goats” of the segment.

We have the Global Finan-cial Crisis of a decade ago to thank for the interest of the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle division in developing a double-cab ute range.

The GFC hit the van sales of the division hard enough to encourage diversifica-tion, and trigger a debate

about building lighter trucks. Proposals to build a heavier pick-up truck such as popular in North America, or a light single-cab ute as favoured in South America and Europe, were rejected for not having enough global potential.

The medium-sized dou-ble-cab pick-up trucks ac-count for two million vehicle sales in the world, and that volume is predicted to rise by another million units over the next 10 years. The deci-sion was therefore made to take on the ubiquitous leader of that segment, the Toyota Hilux, by building a new Mercedes-Benz competitor.

It’s the evolution of the mid-size double-cab ute into a multi-use vehicle that

has caused the most soul-searching for Daimler at board level.

Challenges such as the long gestation of develop-ing a new body-on-chassis vehicle were overcome by getting Daimler’s customer in providing Infiniti platforms, Renault-Nissan, on board.

“Using the Nissan Na-vara as a platform for the X-class gave us a head-start of at least three years,” says Australian development engineer, Scott Williams. As a former Hyundai Australia guy, he should know, having been involved in the early planning discussions about the Korean brand developing its own mid-sized ute range.

The extensive marketing

BY PAUL OWENS

Continued on page 23

Mercedes X-Class lifts ute refinement to a new level

in the Wellington region, and Winger Subaru in Glenfield. 

When launching their store in Sylvia Park last year, Suzuki New Zealand general manager of automobile mar-keting Gary Collins noted that the locations work well for brands with a private sales focus.

“This is a beneficial mar-keting strategy for dealer-ships as it positions our brand in a non-traditional setting and is building brand awareness. Pop-ups have great potential and early response has been positive,” Collins said.

“With our strong bias to private sales it makes sense

for us to take our vehicles to the public to showcase our great range of new models and show how affordable our model range is.”

Last year, with their store, Winger Subaru’s Jason Mac-donald suggested the facility was less threatening to the public.

“It’s a little less threatening

and more relaxed for cus-tomers. It is also building the dealership’s presence in the community,” he explained.

“It’s one thing having vehicles in there but from a Winger point of view, it’s also about brand awareness. Our dealership is only three to four kilometres from the shop.”

Continued from page 20

Mall stores the future for car sales?

SHOWROOMNEW VEHICLE INDUSTRY AND PRODUCT NEWS

22 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

Two things cut the new Skoda Karoq out from the rest of the compact

SUV herd.One is the optional “Vari-

oflex” leather seats that can be folded away or discarded to make more room for luggage. The other is the new 1.5-litre direct-injected turbocharged four-cylinder engine from the Volkswagen Group.

The Karoq debuts the new-age petrol engine for the group in the New Zealand marketplace, and the 1.5-li-tre lives up to its billing of offering diesel-like frugality and torque accessibility while living up to the convenience advantages of a benzene-burner – no RUCs, lower reg-istration fees and no smelly hands after filling up.

The numbers tell the story of the efficiency advantages of the new 1.5-litre.

Lab test results over the EC driving cycle record its fuel use over combined city/highway driving simula-tions at a lowly 5.5 litres per 100km. With most com-petitors (Sportage, RAV4, Qashqai etc) rated as using another three litres/100km over the same lab test, Skoda New Zealand is confident that Karoq owners will save around $3000 in fuel use over 60,000km of driving compared to those non-turbo, larger-displacement competitors.

That’s a pretty compelling selling point even before you consider the lower environ-mental impact that comes as

a result.The new 1.5-litre has sev-

eral features that contribute to this conservation of fuel load.

It can de-activate the middle two cylinders when they are surplus to present requirements, and it is built to tighter tolerances between it’s reciprocating and rotat-ing components than most combustion engines.

Typically, these tighter tolerances would create challenges to the thermal management of the engine, but the 1.5-litre overcomes these with new cooling technologies. It is arguably the most advanced engine of its type, and it’s refined and ultra-smooth demeanour help back up the argument.

The other eyebrow-rais-ing number of the front-drive Karoq TSI is the 8.6 seconds it takes to sprint from rest to the legal limit. All the competitors above need at least 10 seconds to realise the open road speed limit from a standstill. Some even require 11. It’s the increased access to driving force that the boost from the turbo enables that con-tributes to this performance advantage.

The 1.5-litre develops

110kW at 5000rpm and 250Nm at 1500rpm, outputs that are efficfficiently pro-cessed by the seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox fitted to the $38,990 Karoq Ambition+ TSI, and its better-dressed sibling, the $42,990 Karoq Style TSI.

There’s another pow-ertrain available for the $48,490 Karoq Style TDI 4×4, which comes with a 2.0 turbo-diesel four, uses a similar seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox, and has an adaptive 4wd system.

The extra weight of the bigger compression-ignition engine and the four-paw torque distribution might raise the 0-100 sprint interval of the TDI to 9.3 seconds according to Skoda, but frugality is increased to 5.2 litres/100km.

Perhaps the most com-pelling reasons to buy the 110kW/340Nm TDI are the increased towing capacity and the advantages of all-wheel-drive. The diesel Karoq is rated tow 2000kg braked trailers, while the petrols are limited to 1500kg trailers.

The five-seat Karoq replaces the quirky Yeti in Skoda’s line-up and is quite a bit bigger at 4.382 metres in length, 159mm longer

than its forebear. That’s still 153mm shorter than the suc-cessful seven-seat medium/large Kodiaq SUV on sale in the same showroom.

The relatively spacious cabin offers luggage configu-rations that provide between 521 and 1630 litres of stow-age. Ticking the Varioflex option ($1750 on its own, or $2500 when packaged with a leather-trimmed steering wheel and polished pedals) allows more versatile seating arrangements that can pro-vide between 479 and 1810 litres of stash space.

Subject to the supply of the Karoq to the New Zealand market, the more compact alternative to the Kodiaq has the potential to become the best-selling Skoda model range here.

The Czech automotive brand first broke through the 1000-unit barrier in annual sales in 2014, and sales have risen incrementally over the next three years to 1200 units in 2017. The target for 2018 is 1800 sales, which gives some idea of the impact that the Karoq range will have.

That target will be raised again to 2000 units in 2019 when Skoda launches a small SUV to complement the Ka-roq and Kodiaq ranges.

Frugal n’ frisky 1.5 enlivens Skoda Karoq’s debutBY PAUL OWENS

SHOWROOMNEW VEHICLE INDUSTRY AND PRODUCT NEWS

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 23

campaign for the X-Class also showcases how the ve-hicles break boundaries. The front man for the campaign is Henry Rollins, former leader of the thrash-punk band Black Flag, and now an activist for LGBT rights, world hunger relief and gun control.

Mercedes-Benz Vans Aust/NZ marketing manager Katherine Gracey, says Rol-lins is the human embodi-ment of the contradiction that the X-Class represents. A tough character with a rugged exterior, he has also proven to be sensitive, emo-tional, and intelligent.

“People obviously associ-ate (with Mercedes) from a car perspective but don’t know our full commercial history as well.

“So we wanted to bridge that gap because Henry is a bit of a contradiction with his exterior and how he looks but what he advocates for is phenomenal.”

Seen through the perspective of the range-leading Power specifica-tion, the contradic-tory performance of the X-class is most apparent.

The $69,000 X250d Power 4wd automatic model that I drove had its price blown out to $75,440 by the fitting of two packs – Style (privacy glass, electric rear window, side steps, roof rails, 19” alloy wheels) and a Winter Pack that added heaters to the optional leather seats and heated windscreen washers).

Add those items to Power standard equipment features like a 360-degree camera (handy for both parking and peering over hill crests of-

froad), keyless entry, lane-keeping assist, headlight as-sist, tyre pressure monitoring, park assist, load tray lighting and adjustable tie-down points, and a high-res 8.4 inch touchscreen with a ro-tary controller and touchpad,

and you have arguably the best-equipped 4wd double cab on the market given that the X-utes are the only ones in the class to offer autono-mous emergency braking.

And the price is still well below the six-figure sums some Kiwi ute-buyers are spending on optioned-up Volkswagen Amarok V6s.

But the best proof of the excellence of the X250d Power 4wd is found in its

driving. It weighs 300kg heavier

than the best-equipped Nav-ara NP300, but the extra beef enables a more refined driv-ing persona. There’s 70mm wider wheel tracks to enlarge the “footprint” of the Merc

on the road, an extra cross-member added to the ladder chassis to increase its rigidity, and use of substantially-thicker sound-deaden-ing materials.

Nissan added progressive variable-rate coil rear springs to Series III Navaras after seeing the rear-suspension format of the X, but the Merc’s 10mm thicker stabiliser

bars and firmer spring rates make it a more drive-able ute on the road by restricting body roll further while cor-nering, and enabling more agile steering characteristics. On-road ride quality feels little affected by the shift by Mercedes to firmer springs.

Meanwhile, the Power’s 2.2litre twin-turbo-diesel selectable-4wd powertrain with a choice of either six-speed manual or seven-

speed automatic gearboxes keeps fuel use in check despite the extra mass the Merc carries in comparison with its platform-donor.

The 140kW/450Nm en-gine uses 7.9litres/100km in combined city/highway lab tests, and seems to get into the thick part of the torque curve earlier than the Nav-ara’s 2.3-litre four.

The other powertrain for the X-class debut is a 120kW/403Nm single-turbo variant of the 2.2-litre diesel, which drives the rear wheels only via a six-speed manual gearbox for the Pure entry-models of the range. These list for $53,300 for a cab-chassis, rising to $54,200 for a wellside.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz Vans will release the X350d later this year, pow-ered by a 190kW/550Nm V6 turbodiesel engine capable of lowering the 0-100kmh interval to single-figure numbers. No doubt Volk-swagen will be watching that debut pretty closely, given that their V6 diesel ute models presently comprise 70 per cent of Amarok sales here.

Continued from page 21

Mercedes X-Class lifts ute refinement to a new level

24 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

By David Crawford, CEO of theMotor Industry Association of NZ (Inc).

CRAWFORD’S CASE

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INDUSTRYTALK

Apologies for the ab-sence the last couple of months and a big

thank you to Richard of AutoTalk for keeping this column alive the past two months.

The end of 2017 and the start of this year has been just plain peculiar with a plethora of industry chal-lenges, personal health issues (the latter which I am pleased to say I have recovered from) and be-reavements. One thing after another in rapid succession in a way I have never experi-enced before.

My coping strategy was to recognise that some things were out of my control and as such you just have to roll with the punches as they come, then focus on the things you can do something about. There is absolutely no point in stressing about things you can’t control. Focussing on things you can do something about helps to keep you focussed and mov-ing forward.

And there has been plenty to focus on, but for this month’s column, just the two big ones!

Stink bugsAn apt name but I am re-

sisting the obvious puns. MPI have, in my mind, been con-spicuous by their presence,

responsiveness to questions we have raised with them and when necessary fronted up in the right place at the right time.

For the new vehicle sec-tor, the way forward for us has been clarified. Unless manufacturers and their NZ distributors have an ap-proved system in place, ve-hicles will need to be treated during the high-risk part of the season. Given this year’s problems, it makes sense.

Thanks also go to the VIA for hosting the weekly telephone meetings.

Takata AirbagsI remain concerned that,

in my view, some people in industry still seem to not understand their basic legal obligations every time they import vehicles for on-selling into New Zealand.

The MIA’s Code of Conduct for recalls of used imported vehicles, released in September 2005 and up-dated this year, spelled out these obligations, so they have been known for a long time. More to the point, that code was not just wishful thinking on the part of the new vehicle sector, it is well founded in law.

MBIE’s advice is simple. In plain English it is:

While the NZ vehicle brand owners (the owner of

the official distribution rights for particular vehicle brands in New Zealand) have repu-tational considerations, NZ legislation does not allow for New Zealand brand owners to be made liable for vehicles they have had no part in sup-plying in New Zealand. This responsibility rests with the actual suppliers in the supply chain, ie, the actual importer, wholesaler/distributor and dealer.

Typically, for recalls we consider that the origina-tor of the product in New Zealand is the party with primary responsibility for undertaking a recall.

This is because they introduced the goods and therefore the issue into New Zealand. This said, all parties in the supply chain have responsibility and ultimately, they all have a role in ensur-ing that the recall work is carried out without cost to the consumer.  

In the light of the current Takata mandatory recall the MIA is reviewing its Code of Conduct for recalls of im-ported used vehicles. When that review is completed there will be significant changes from that of past and current practices by NZ distributors of new vehicles. We will be discussing these changes in the first instanc-es with the VIA, so enough

said for now.The MIA also acknowl-

edges the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hon Kris Faafoi, for his role in progressing the recall. Industry’s current focus is on developing a monthly reporting system to monitor progress on closing out recalls, something the Minister requires.

The challenges are not in-significant. Firstly, we need to develop a process by which all vehicles already imported into New Zealand can be identified, then verified in terms of their recall status, ie, is the vehicle subject to the mandatory recall and if so what is its status. Unfortu-nately, this can only be done by verifying each individual vehicle with the manufac-turer’s database.

Then, as a minimum, we need to track how many letters have been sent out, how many vehicles owners have responded to book their vehicle in for the work and how many vehicles have had their work completed.

We are also working with officials and VIA to ensure information is readily avail-able on what vehicles (make/models) are caught and therefore should not be im-ported unless proof of recall completion is obtained from the manufacturer.

I’m back!

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 25

INDUSTRYTALK

Protecting motor vehicle dealers since 2001.

www.motorweb.co.nz

Many vehicle traders take an ad hoc approach to apprais-als. A clearly defined process

can reduce your risk of financial loss, save time and increase the chance of completing the sale. Here are some considerations for your next ap-praisal.

Build trust Trust is important to buyers when

they’re purchasing a car. Start building an open and honest relationship with po-tential customers right from the trade in.

A thorough valuation process could help put customers’ minds at ease - if you put effort into appraising their vehicle, buyers will feel that the same amount of care has gone into your stock selections, which boosts their confidence in you.

If their appraisal experience is half-hearted or unprofessional, buyers may question the integrity of the vehicles you have for sale.

Create a connectionValuations are the perfect opportuni-

ty to get to know your customer better and offer a great solution.

Chat to your buyers while complet-ing your appraisal and you’ll be able to glean valuable information about their hobbies and family situation. If you do this you’ll get a better understanding of what they enjoy and need.

For example they may be expecting a child, and offering them a two-door won’t work - or you may discover that

your customer has two dogs so a sta-tion wagon could really appeal.

Do your homeworkResearch whether they’ve listed it for

sale anywhere else to get a good gauge if the customer is serious about selling their car.

You may see what sort of response they’ve had, which will help determine if this is a car you want to keep for your stock or wholesale.

It also gives a clear indication of what price they’re expecting to get for their vehicle.

Protect yourself with the Vehicle Information Report

The Vehicle Information Report (VIR) ensures you have all the facts at appraisal stage and before the deal is concluded.

Why VIRs are so importantThey alert you to the legal status of

the vehicle - no one wants to trade in a stolen vehicle.

Potentially save money by check-ing if the vehicle is still licenced or has a valid WOF. When buying a vehicle with outstanding RUC the new owner is responsible for settling any outstanding

Chris KnightSales Director, Trade Me Motors09 924 6632chris.knight@trademe.co.nz

amounts.Understand any securities on the

vehicle. You’ll find out who needs to be settled and more importantly, that the seller will most likely need

to finance their next vehicle - you can then prepare to offer the best solution to close the deal.

Highlights whether the vehicle has been imported as a damaged vehicle or a previously written off vehicle. You’ll need to declare this information when selling the vehicle in future.

Note: If there is a significant time lapse between when the appraisal was done and when the deal is concluded, it’s recommended to reassess the vehicle and compare it to the origi-nal appraisal form. In the interim the vehicle may have been damaged or mileage may have increased signifi-cantly, factors that directly impact the price offered.

It’s also recommended to run a second VIR (these are usually offered at a reduced price) to safeguard against any changes to securities on the vehicle and to ensure that the registries are all up to date.

Present buyers with all the detailsUsing a professional appraisal form

and making a note of the vehicle’s wear and tear or damage will help explain the price offered for a trade in.

Invest in a sound vehicle appraisal process

Continued on page 39

26 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

MARKETINGTALK

Matt Darby works for AutoPlay which specialises in pre-sale lead management tools. To find out more about AutoPlay services email sales@autoplay.co.nz or visit www.autoplay.co.nz

March 2018, as expected, saw a reasonable bounce back in the number of leads, test drives and sales re-corded by the approximately 80% of franchise dealers

that use AutoPlay Sales Pipeline to manage their leads.

Overall there was a 10.5 per cent increase in the number of leads generated in March v February. Some of this can be attributed to February being a shorter month, however, such an increase still reflects more leads being created each day in March compared to February.

Despite fewer leads generated in February, there were still 16.1% more test drives generated in March – highlight-ing that a significant portion of leads are test driven within the same month as being created.

In addition, sales increased by 11.9% overall, making March a successful month for franchise dealers.

One of the biggest drivers for the increased number of

leads was a significant increase in the amount of leads being generated from dealer websites (up 62.4%).

Over the past six months we’ve seen a sustained posi-tive trend with lead, test drive and sales activity that can be directly attributed to dealer websites.

This latest increase indicates that web – dealer is really firming as the best place to get your leads from.

Offsetting the increase in web – deale’ leads was a de-crease 22.1% in brand leads and 4.1% in web – classified leads.

Top 3 sources of leads, test drives and sales March 2018 (vs Feb 2018)

In March the web – dealer source was again the number one source of test drives – up 9.5% from February 2018.

After decreasing 11.3% in February, the Brand source bounced back with 33.9% more test drives recorded against the Brand source in March than in February.

The web – classified source also performed well – jumping into the third position with 16.3% more test drives from this source in March than February.

The usual suspects occupied the top three sources of Sales in march with web – dealer, repeat and web – classi-fied occupying the top three spots.

However, after a down in February where all three expe-rienced a drop from the month prior, sales increased across the board. web – dealer experienced a small increase of 1.6%, while ‘repeat’ (up 12.2%) and Web – Classified (up 9.5%) experienced larger increases.

Make sure to read the next issue of Autotalk to see what sources of leads were popular in April amongst New Zealand dealerships.

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 27

MARKETINGTALK

1Top 3 Sources for Leads, Test Drives and Sales - New Zealand Dealerships February 2018 ( vs January 2018)

Web - Classified 12.3%

Repeat 3.2%Web - Dealer 23.7%

SALE

S

Brand 11.3%

Direct 22.2%Web - Dealer 19.2%

TEST

DRIV

ES

Web - Dealer 20.9%

Web - Classified 5.4%Brand 48.2%

LEA

DS

Peter Aitkenpeter@clearedge.co.nz or 021-940 318

Recently I read with interest several NADA 2018 vendors’ assess-

ments of what they learned from dealers as the more im-portant challenges dealers face back in their dealerships.

Dealers spoke to not only the challenges they currently face but also those they saw as shaping the products and services of the future.

This cross section of vendors covered a range of digital marketing products and services including CRM, social media, lead genera-tion, dealership communica-tions, artificial intelligence, video marketing, F&I auto-motive digital retailing.

The foremost aspect of digital retailing posed by dealers was just how to have the customer complete more of the sales process online at their home before visiting the dealership.

It was generally accepted that with more of the sales process a customer is able to complete in their home the more likely they would have a better experience. Any additional at home sales process does not negate the need for customers to visit the dealership for the test drive nor the sign up for the vehicle.

One of the key mediums to facilitate the online sales process is the mobile phone,

not only as a smart digital device in the hands of the customer but also as a criti-cal digital tool for the sales person.

The mobile phone of to-day is in fact a sophisticated hand held mini laptop with telecom connectivity.

With vehicle margins becoming more and more compressed, speed of response and smart func-tionality in every aspect of mobile phone customer/dealer communication be-comes a critical component for dealer profitability.

To provide insight into the importance of mobile phones to dealership activ-ity Cavan Robinson (OEM product manager for Dealer Socket) in his Digital Dealer Magazine April 2018 article provided a range of valuable insights.

According to Google more than 60% of automo-tive searches come from a mobile device, with many of those top searches being re-lated to dealership websites.

Today, mobile custom-ers are no longer simply appeased with a website or a mobile platform they now expect an exceptional experience.

Customers are 62% less likely to purchase from a brand (think also of your dealership as a retail brand) in the future if they have had a negative experience. Conversely, 89% of people are likely to recommend a brand after having a positive experience on mobile.

Robinson outlines five key mobile actions dealers can take to improve customer mobile experience whilst vis-iting their dealership website, they are:

Search Capability: Make sure your mobile content matches your desktop. Launch a regular stream of diverse content to reach more users across multiple mediums. Think what the next steps will be for any visi-tor to your site.

Faster is better: In July this year Google will change the ranking algorithm to start crawling and index-ing mobile-specific content above the desktop version.

Consumers want easy website navigation: Avoid using popups, overlays, widgets and slides as they take away the website browsing experience by add-ing unnecessary weight to pages. Keep it simple!

Provide multiple avenues to get in touch: Dealerships with CRM specialised plat-forms can help to incorpo-rate forms and click-to-call functionality as users are typically searching for more

Imagine a world without your mobile phone?

information. Tie it all together with

mobile transactions: Mobile devices are not just for re-search. Data suggests mobile transactions will account for almost 50% of e-commerce sales by 2020 and Dealer Socket’s Dealership Action Report indicates consumers rate higher satisfaction when auto (vehicle) payments are presented on a tablet in a dealership.

Not only do mobile trans-actions improve the digital retail sale process, they also put control in user’s hands-boosting buyer confidence. Digital retailing tools help dealerships:• Speed up the sales

process• Improve consistency• Increase transparency• Streamline financing• Provide a more conveni-

ent user experience.As consumers continue

to rely on mobile devices for research and transactions, building an excellent mobile experience will only become more important for dealer success.

To find out more about how you can improve your digital retail process through advanced mobile technology take time to check out what AutoPlay New Zealand has to offer, visit www.autoplay.co.nz

Vinsen’s ViewThe monthly update from VIA chief executive, David Vinsen

APRIL 2018

ADVANTAGE

WHAT DO WE DO?

Advice and advocacy for the used vehicle industryIf you have technical questions, compliance problems, consumer complaints, staff issues — we can help.

For more information: www.via.org.nz | Free phone: 0800 842 842 | Phone 09 573 3058

With the many domestic issues we have on our

plate so far this year, it was a change of pace to head off to Taipei in early April for a series of trade shows held by TAITRA, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. The “Asian Mega 4 in 1 Auto Trade Show” covered elec-tric Vehicles and autotron-ics, two key areas of interest for our market, as well as a show for motorcycles and auto parts and accessories.

Why Taipei?As an important export

market for auto producers in Asia, we were encouraged by officials at TAITRA to form a delegation, helped along with subsidised accommo-dation and support in the planning.

As a result, we were able to put together a good mix-ture of importers, special-ised dealers and component suppliers, both to make the most of the opportunities on offer, and represent New Zealand in the international marketplace.

The formalities on day 1 kicked off with a welcome from TAITRA, and a variety of presentations from interna-tional delegates.

I presented an overview of the New Zealand market, outlining our import process and the relatively large num-bers involved, and focussing in more detail on our strate-gic goals relating to EVs and intelligent transport systems.

This was the ideal intro-duction for this audience, and I was approached by several delegates from OEMs and third-party sup-pliers who were keen to build networks across our supply chain.

While all our source markets were represented, many of the exhibitors were based in mainland China, an indication of their fast-grow-ing role in the production of vehicles and components.

Networking at all pointsThis effect proved con-

sistent across our whole delegation, especially as we made our way around the subsequent displays, across two well-equipped sites in central Taipei.

Many of the international guests I met were grate-ful for the chance to meet their counterparts from New Zealand, to gain a greater understanding of our opera-tions and what opportunities are likely to lie ahead – par-

ticularly, for example, in EV charging componentry, and the retrofitting of IT technol-ogy into our existing fleet.

Another notable as-pect was the cooperation among our delegates. In our established spirit of “co-ope-tition”, it was pleasing to see businesspeople who operate on complementary axes of our business exploring the exhibits together and looking for ways to work together.

It’s also fair to say that the peripheral meetings, espe-cially those hotel breakfasts, were an ideal networking opportunity and a chance to secure informal agreements on proposals.

Keeping our seat at the table

This global perspective is crucial to VIA, as we seek to understand not just what lies around the corner, but further down the road and beyond for the importation of vehicles into New Zea-land.

Also in April, our policy adviser and analyst Kit Wilkerson attended his latest International Standards Or-ganisation (ISO) committee meeting on ITS in Seoul – coincidentally just as North and South Korea began to

broker their landmark peace talks.

As well as giving New Zealand an unprecedented level of influence in the de-velopment of international standards, Kit’s role also opens doors for our Gov-ernment at the most senior levels.

After something of a diplomatic success with his Norwegian counterparts, we are now in the fortunate position of arranging for Norway’s Transport Minister to meet with ours, the Hon Phil Twyford, at an ITS sym-posium later in 2018. Nor-way shares many similarities with New Zealand in its size and demographics, and their forward-thinking economy is one that we may do well to partner with in future trans-port initiatives.

So for now, it’s straight back into the thick of the Takata airbag recall, the developing domestic mar-ket for EVs and preparing to tackle the next stink bug season!

But rest assured, VIA has its eyes on the road ahead, to shape the latest changes in global transport and understand what these will mean for all New Zealand-ers.

Keeping a global perspective

Advice and advocacy for the used vehicle industry

CORPORATE PARTNERS

UPDATE

Are you prepared for the new Health and Safety framework?

By 2020, the Government aims to achieve a 25% reduction in workplace injuries. Are you ready?

VIA is here to help, with industry-ready Procedures Kits for workshops, car yards and compliance shops – developed in conjunction with experts HRtoolkit.

For more information, contact: Malcolm Yorston, Technical Services Manager on 0800 046 842 or DDI 09 573 3243

Email: technical@via.org.nz

Health and Safety

Are you keen for your staff to upskill with further training, and learn to tailor improved processes

for your business?Often referred to as ‘lean manufac-

turing’ or simply ‘lean’, Competitive Systems and Practices eliminate an or-ganisation’s waste – leading to reduced costs from labour, lead time and inven-tory. They can also result in improved performance from strategic thinking, process development and streamlined technological implications.

MITO, the Industry Training Organi-sation for the automotive and transport sector, is now offering tailored train-ing with its New Zealand Certificate in Competitive Systems and Practices (Level 3). By completing this qualifi-

cation, your staff will gain a holistic approach to improving organisational efficiency, strengthening your competi-tive advantage and ensuring long-term business sustainability.

Programme outcomes include:• Identifying waste within a process

and taking action to minimise it• Identifying cost factors within their

own control, and taking action to improve cost efficiency

• Applying competitive systems and practices concepts to implement improvements in their own work

• Understanding and addressing the impact of change resulting from the implementation of improve-ments in their work.

Upskill your staff, and transform your business

• Sustaining workplace improve-ments once they are implemented.

This qualification is designed for staff who will be contributing to the implementation of competitive systems and practices within their organisation. Those who complete it will gain the skills and knowledge to identify, imple-ment and sustain process improve-ments to help transform their business.

Contact MITO to enrol your staff today, and increase your competitive advantage while supporting your staff in gaining new skills and a formal quali-fication. Call 0800 88 21 21 or email info@mito.org.nz.

David Vinsen of VIA after addressing the audience at the Taipei AutoTronics exhibition

JAPANESE MARKETPLACE

30 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

The events of April within the Japanese used imported vehicle marketplace showed once again

how volatile a year 2018 has been for the industry.

Having the past few days of the month fall into the lead-up to Golden Week in Japan provided little relief, the supply chain reeling from the effects of crisis after crisis ranging from the BMSB stink-bug, shipping logjams, credit dif-ficulties in New Zealand for importers, through to Takata Alpha airbag uncer-tainties, grappling with the identification of ESC-compliant stock and consumer concerns around the Nissan EV 30kW battery degradation.

What has been immediately evident is that the days when the New Zealand market demand drove values within sectors of the Japanese auction supply chain are over.

Even with the New Zealand export market proving anything but easy to work with for Japanese buyers, values within the auction system remained stubbornly strong, showing little sign during March of any end-of-year slow-down, and continuing in to the second quarter of 2018.

While the value peaks that were oc-curring in late 2017 may have subsided, the normal cyclical rises and falls in unit value that New Zealand-bound stock buyers would, in years gone by, play to advantage, have flat-lined over the past six months.

Although this could be seen as dis-advantageous to many, the benefit of a stable market pricing trend, no matter the level, is the ability for the market to predict with accuracy longer-term stock replacement costs and thus cor-rectly factor in any retail yard depre-ciation and discounting- it is always easier to plan a marketing strategy if the replacement values are known.

On the other hand, the worrying trend in Japan is the stubborn refusal of

the late-model stock (under 7 years of age) to depreciate at a rate that would make it the natural choice for Kiwi buy-ers and thus consumers.

Should further availability con-straints be placed upon the incoming stock to New Zealand in the near fu-ture, it is very possible that the market would simply be unable to meet such a scope and, inadvertently, decrease access to the stepped upgrading to newer models that Kiwi consumers are used to.

Values of non-ESC compliant models such as Elgrand, Alphard and Estima appear to have suffered little in the past month at auction, indicating as mentioned above, that New Zealand no longer dictates to the same extent it used to, the demand and pricing of models supplied to our markets.

Commercial vehicles, in particular light vans such as Toyota Hiace, Nissan Caravan and Nissan NV200 continue to command top prices at auction, even in less than ideal condition, as demand remains high in New Zealand against an equally strong export market in Japan to the world for these vehicles.

The advantage Kiwi buyers and re-tailers enjoy with vans - as opposed to cars - is the current strength of the New Zealand economy and pent-up demand by tradespeople and small business alike to update, within certain pricing parameters that a later-model imported used van can deliver.

Thus, even at the peak pricing en-joyed by these models on the Japanese domestic market circuit, there remains the ability of the Kiwi market to absorb and, to a certain extent, pass on these costs.

Nissan Leaf 30kW values continue to stagnate around the Y1,000,000 mark (and some below) although compara-tively few sold at this level under the gavel, with a noticeable decline over the past month of these particular vehicles being entered in to auction for sale.

Those companies holding Leaf 30kW stock in Japan appear to have elected to hold back on offering to the market until the extent of the issue is identi-fied and rectified, thus attempting to preserve pre-30kW crisis value.

Older cars are still flowing through the auctions in volumes at both low-mileage and high-mileage end-of-life condition, with pricing points still giving Kiwi export market buyers op-portunities to secure clean and tidy affordable stock.

ESC compliance has settled back in the shadow of more pressing industry concerns such as Takata and biosecu-rity, with most regular Japanese market buyers now attuned to the models deemed “safe” to buy, and prepared now to know which models need to be physically inspected for ESC fitment before bidding.

As April drew to a close, the biggest pressures within the market remained upon the shoulders of the logistics companies, feeling the effects on the ports across Japan as shippers rallied to load the enormous backlogs of both new and used vehicles held back during the height of the BMSB crisis.

Some port areas saw units destined for export spilling out into the streets surrounding the TRS areas, awaiting entry over the month in to the com-pounds for inspection, cleaning and verification.

The arrival numbers in New Zea-land during April and May will reflect these pressures, but do not accurately portray the extent of any ability to buy stock in March or April. We may need await the conclusion of June 2018 before the true picture of demand emerges.

Light commercials command top prices at auction BY GRAEME MACDONALD

JAPANESE MARKETPLACE

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 31

Toyota Motor Corpora-tion is to merge its To-kyo area dealer groups

into one company under its ReBORN revitalisation brand.

It will merge Toyota Tokyo Sales Holdings Inc, Tokyo Toyota Motor Co, To-kyo Toyopet Motor Sales Co, Toyota Tokyo Corolla Co Ltd and Netz Toyota Tokyo Co. 

The seperate brands represent the multiple dealer channels the company has run for decades to target particular buyer segments. Toyota is shifting its focus

from the sales regions and is looking to revise its structure and work style to reinforce cooperation with custom-ers, local government, and other companies in each sales region, and ultimately aims to provide new mobility services.

In central Tokyo in par-ticular, where public trans-portation is firmly estab-lished, there is a shift from car ownership to car usage. Central Tokyo is also an area noted for brisk competi-tion in the premium market,

which boasts a high share of imported automobiles. 

Toyota believes that the way cars are used in Tokyo varies depending on what part of Tokyo a consumer resides. 

The new company is to be primarily comprised of a Toyota business unit, and a Lexus business unit. For the time, being the four sales channels of the Toyota busi-ness will be maintained as an in-house company within the Toyota business unit. 

“Tokyo cannot be

summed up in one word, as it consists of various regions, lifestyles, and car usage,” Yasuhiko Sato, senior man-aging officer and chief officer of the Japan Sales Business Group at Toyota says.

“In addition to it being the largest car market in Japan, Tokyo is likely where we will see the first changes in cus-tomer needs in Japan ahead of the Olympic and Para-lympic Games Tokyo 2020. Consequently, under Tokyo ReBORN, Tokyo’s directly-managed dealers aim to take the lead in tackling antici-pated changes in consumer demand in Japan. 

“Under this plan, we aim to develop the best deal-ers in a region that is able to swiftly undertake local issues,” Sato says..

Toyota merges Tokyo sales operations

The international Avis car rental brand is returning to Japan, in the hands

of an existing car dealer and rental car operator.

Idex Auto Japan, a dealer of new and previously owned vehicles and car rental operator in Japan, has been appointed the com-pany’s licensee to operate the brand.

The first new location will be at Chitose International Airport on Hokkaidō Island.

Further openings planned this year include locations at Fukuoka International Airport, Narita International Airport and Kagoshima Inter-national Airport, scheduled for the summer. 

“Relaunching our iconic premium brand into a market as large as Japan exempli-fies our continued commit-ment to driving sustained profitable growth,” says Mark Servodidio, president, Inter-national, Avis Budget Group.

“And with Japan host-ing the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympics in 2020, the timing is perfect. Together with Idex Auto Japan, we look forward to bringing our world-class mobility products and ser-vices to business and leisure customers across Japan.”

Toshimichi Takada, presi-dent of Idex Auto Japan, says the government has been making it easier for interna-tional visitors to travel within

the country.“In recent years, the

Japanese government took action to relax regulations in an effort to attract tourism, and its efforts have been well received. Japan has had a steady increase in the num-ber of inbound tourists since, and East Asia is set to host some of the world’s largest sporting events,” Takada. says

“We’re excited to build on this momentum and operate the Avis brand in Japan.”

Dealer brings Avis back to Japan

Looking to source Nis-san Leafs out of Japan? The number sold there

is growing - great news for Kiwi buyers.

Off the back of strong sales of the new genera-tion car, cumulative sales in Japan have hit the 100,000 unit mark.

“We’re excited to reach the 100,000-vehicle mile-stone for sales of the Nissan Leaf in our home market of Japan, and this wouldn’t have been possible without our customers, who have embraced this great car,” says Asako Hoshino, senior vice-president at Nissan

and head of the Operations Committee for Japan. 

“The era of electric vehi-cles is here. As a technology leader, Nissan will continue to work on Nissan Intel-ligent Mobility initiatives to deliver products and ser-vices that exceed customer expectations.”

Nissan launched the first generation of the car, the world’s first mass-produced electric car, in 2010. Today, the zero-emission Nissan Leaf is the world’s best-selling electric vehicle, with cumulative global sales of more than 300,000 units.

Leaf sales hit 100,000 in Japan

32 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

F&ITALK

Have you ever watched a professional sports coach working with a player?

It’s a hands-on event. The coach is actively involved in the process. There is pushing, directing, handling, pointing and instructing. Coaching may be a teach-ing process, but it’s more than just teaching.

Sports (like sales) are learned in the field, and they are best taught by a subject matter expert who has experienced the event in the field. For example, anyone could give a tennis class using a workbook, videos and power point, but it would take an experienced and accom-plished player to show the student how to serve and volley. Until the student actually hits the courts, eve-rything is theory.

In addition, with the incredible pace that sports science (and in our case the science of buyer behaviour) evolves, you need a subject matter expert who is not only current and relevant, but stays that way. How F&I and sales were taught 20 years ago is simply not relevant anymore.

Selling skills (as well as most sports skills) are acquired through situational training, relevant informa-tion, practice, follow-up instruction, best practice and hands-on coaching.

Sound business practices (best practice) work in every marketplace

We cannot expect an increase in sales (as with sports) by doing the same

things we have always done. The businesses that are at the front of the pack are the ones who are constantly refining their processes, searching for improved methods, and are willing to listen to and act on better plans.

No matter how long you have been in the industry, training should be a part of your annual business plan. Updating and recharging are critical for growth.

If you don’t think this is important, consider the fact most dealers believe it to be an area of on-going weak-ness in many sales staff. It’s also worth considering other business or environ-mental changes that could be factored into your sales training. Are there any new competitive forces or trends that could cause a shift?

Relevance is criticalIn our industry there is

a premium on time, espe-cially when coming out of the dealership for training. Therefore, its important learning is situational and real-world based. It must be practical and up to date. Scripts that may have worked 20 years ago, simply waste trainee’s time today. Providing it’s relevant and current, learners will want to immediately apply what they’ve learned. A success

with content development through a salesperson is” “Wow, I just faced that situa-tion, and these concepts and tactics seem to fit perfectly. I took a lot away from what I have just absorbed through learning, and I will do a bet-ter job (or take a different

approach) the next time I am faced with that situ-ation.” It’s also essential that training builds on your best practices.

But if what they are learning does not seem immediately applicable,

relevant or realistic, then they disengage. The training loses its impact, the mes-sages are soon forgotten, and learners retreat to their old habits.

Does training and skill development pay?

Using Deloitte Car Benchmarks – New Zealand 2017 for margin and average leads per month, training and coaching a 1% increase in the closing ratio for one salesperson equates to 1 extra unit sale per month. This can deliver potentially $30,000 in additional gross per annum to the average dealer. Do you have sales-people on your team right now that close at 5% below others on your team – that might be costing you over $150,000 per year?

F&I is very similar – again using the same Deloitte Benchmarks, increase the Income per Vehicle Retailed by 10% and the potential incremental income you are looking at is over $50,000 per annum, per business manager.

Multiply these numbers by how many salespeople or business managers you have and you’ll get the idea.

The added benefit is there is no need to increase stock, advertising or any capital spending. The return on investment is potentially very high.

Investing in your people is investing in your capital

Training is often viewed as an expense rather than an investment in the peo-ple who produce for the dealership. Salespeople are the capital that drives the car business. That is the most vital link to success that you have. It’s the most wonderful opportunity if you pay atten-tion to it in your dealership today.

TrainersSome industry suppliers

unfortunately use trainers who build training pro-grammes based on books they have read. And some would-be trainers agree to speak on topics that are purely academic for them or they are still living in the 1970s.

The best trainers ARE the message, which means that they live and breathe and use what they teach. They can answer any questions, meet any needs, and help with any situation that salespeople may bring up. They truly know their business.

Talk to us about your training and development needs. Use a trainer who wrote the book instead of one who (you hope) read a book.

Training – expense or investment?

James Searle is general manager of DPL Insurance Ltd

www.autosure.co.nz | 0800 267 873

INSURANCE

• Mechanical Breakdown

• Payment Protection

• Loan Equity

• Motor Vehicle

If you’d like to become an Autosure Approved Dealer, contact us to find out more.

We’ve got New Zealand covered!And we’re here to help you provide the best insuranceprotection for your customers.

34 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

F&ITALK

Tell me, are you ready? Have you

aimed and set your goals? Are your firing, and if so, do you really know where things are going?

I hope that you are all in a positive frame of mind, and you are ready to capitalise on every opportunity that our current and sometimes trying market brings us.

A wise man once said: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”, another said: “Prior planning prevents poor performance” (the 5 Ps). Both sayings are a mind-set.

So let’s all take a deep breath and make sure we have a plan.

Set your goals, identify what you need to do to achieve them, and by when.

Each step to your success should be measured.Yes these words, are the old drivers. Words like goals, time

management, KPIs etc. They are all well known to us, but un-less we live by them, we will be left behind. Without this basic fundamental work ethic you will never achieve and succeed to your fullest potential.

Members of the Provident team have been asked to sit down with many of you over the years, to confidently discuss your business plan, to measure performance, set achievable KPIs and create growth in your business. We call this Making Profits Grow (MPG).

If you haven’t already, it’s time to restart your business in a positive manner. Do yourself and your business a favour, run a financial heath check.1. Review your stock, set a goal for turnover, stick to the

plan, remember dead stock is a cancer, cut it loose.2. Review profit margins. Excessive margins can limit turno-

ver. A little of everything gives the consumer a better buying experience.

3. When a sales opportunity presents itself, remember the golden rule (where appropriate and fit for purpose) offer 100% of products to 100% customers, 100% of the time. Disclose all benefits and exclusions, let your customer make an informed decision.

4. Review expenses. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

5. Save a little here and a little there, it all mounts up.6. Set KPIs, look at sales penetration. If you don’t have the

confidence to capitalise on a sales opportunity, take ownership of your requirement to up-skill. Yes old dogs can be taught new tricks. Recognising a deficiency of required knowledge is not exposing a failure, quite the opposite, it’s a step towards a correction.

7. Create your market. Don’t wait for it to come to you, grab your share. Remember, the longer you’re in busi-ness, the most valuable asset you hold, is your client base. It’s far easier to market and sell to a repeat custom-er, and their extended family and friends, than find a new

Ready, aim, fire…

Jaques Gray, Provident Insurance national sales manager

Continued on page 45

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OUR NEW TRADE

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AUCTIONS

HEIWA AUTO

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MANHEIM AUCTIONS

09 918 0500www.manheim.co.nzManheim is New Zealand’s largest provider of automo-tive auction services. Auctions held weekly.

NICHIBO09 374 4436www.nichibojapan.comWe have a wealth of knowl-edge and experience in auto auctions throughout Japan which we know will enable us to assist you in making your next purchase.

NIKKYO0211-740-258 http://www.nikkyocars.comDespite changing times in the industry our focus on customer satisfaction and quality cars has kept us going for 22 years.

SBL INTERNATIONAL VEHICLE BROKERING03 377 6578www.sbltd.co.nz“NZ owned and operated SBL continue to set the motor industry benchmark for importing vehicles”

FINANCE & INSURANCE

AUTOSUREPhone: 09 489 9107www.autosure.co.nzAutosure NZ has been a lead-ing provider of automotive-owner protection policies for the NZ retail motor vehicle industry since 1986.

OXFORD FINANCE

0800 263 264info@oxf.co.nzwww.oxfordfinance.co.nzOxford’s friendly team can offer you flexible solutions to finance the purchase of your new vehicle.

PROVIDENT INSURANCE

0800 676 864info@providentinsurance.co.nzContact: Steve Owens Chief Executive OfficerHelping dealers “Make Profits Grow”. Specialist F&I training, support and products to retail motor vehicle traders.

UDC FINANCE0800 500 832www.udc.co.nzYour first choice in automo-tive lending. Fixed Rates. Fast Approval.

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AUTO-IT LIMITED 0800 776 611Sales@auto-it.co.nzChanging your DMS? Let Auto-IT help you, the leader in New Generation Dealer Management Systems.

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MOTORWEB0800 843 847support@motorweb.co.nzNZ’s leading vehicle history check provider, delivering online services to all sectors of the motor industry.

IT SERVICES

AUTOPLAY.CO.NZ09 361 1505salesauto@autoplay.co.nzAutoplay use the latest technology to deliver a suite of smart digital tools to our customers.

PARTS

REPCO 0800 800 878www.repco.co.nzRepco - over 800 highly trained staff, 82 stores nationwide and home to New Zealand’s leading automotive brands.

PAINT & FABRIC SUPPLIERS

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SHIPPING & LOGISTICS

AUTOHUB09 411 7425info@autohub.co.nzThe easiest way to ship your cars and other vehicles globally.

VEHICLE INSPECTION

VINZVehicle Inspection NZ0800 GO VINZ (0800 468 469)info@vinz.co.nzNew Zealand’s best choice for WoF / CoF, Inspections, Certi-fications and much more.

VTNZ 0800 88 88 69Sales@vtnz.co.nz

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 37

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AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 37

TOP 10 USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MODELS

MAKE MODELAPR

'18MAKE MODEL

APR

'17TOYOTA HIACE 286 TOYOTA HIACE 322NISSAN CARAVAN 44 NISSAN CARAVAN 73TOYOTA DYNA 35 TOYOTA REGIUS 51NISSAN NV200 33 MAZDA BONGO 41MAZDA BONGO 30 NISSAN VANETTE 38NISSAN VANETTE 29 TOYOTA DYNA 31TOYOTA REGIUS 27 ISUZU ELF 22NISSAN NV350 26 NISSAN NV200 18ISUZU ELF 23 TOYOTA HILUX 17FORD RANGER 18 FORD RANGER 15

USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES

MAKE APR'18 APR'17 Movement% Change

Market Share

TOYOTA 389 452 -13.9 47.0NISSAN 174 187 -7.0 21.0ISUZU 54 45 Up 1 20.0 6.5FORD 38 33 Up 1 15.2 4.6MAZDA 35 54 Down 2 -35.2 4.2HINO 30 20 Up 3 50.0 3.6MITSUBISHI 22 27 Down 1 -18.5 2.7CHEVROLET 13 21 -38.1 1.6HOLDEN 11 22 Down 2 -50.0 1.3DAIHATSU 8 1.0Other 54 47 14.9 6.5TOTAL 828 908 -8.8 100.0

The weight of the stink bug issue and port congestion has fac-

tored in another poor month for used import vehicle registrations - down 13% year-on-year.

Passenger vehicle reg-istrations for the month totalled 10,893, down from 12,507 this time last year. For the year, registrations are now down 7% to 48,501 from 52,174.

Commercial registrations were down 9% to 828. For the year, registrations remain up 18% to 3775 units. For the year this segment remains up 18% on 3775 units.

Toyota remains the most popular brand, though reg-istrations fell 17.6% to 2644.

This equates to just short of a quarter of the market at 24.3%.

Nissan took second place on 1970, down 14% for an 18.1% share, Mazda third on 1760 units, down 3.5% for 16.2% of the market.

In fourth, Honda fell 14.6%

to 1053 vehicles, a 9.7% share, while in fifth, Subaru showed the only growth in the top 10 - up 8.7% to 623 for a 5.7% stake of the market.

The Mazda Axela held the top spot on the model charts with 537 units, followed

closely by the Suzuki Swift on 504 vehicles.

The Mazda Demio took third on 409, followed by the Nissan Tiida on 390 and the Honda Fit on 366.

The Subaru Legacy was the top large car on 303, the Toyota Prius hybrid on 265, the Toyota Wish the top people mover on 231, the Mitsubishi Outlander the top SUV on 223 and the Volk-swagen Golf, the European model on 202.

The Nissan Leaf - on 229 units - reached its highest rank ever at 11th, showing

Used import registrations continue to collapse

Continued on page 38

38 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

STATSTALKUSED VEHICLES

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38 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

Keep up with the Electric Vehicle industry news

USED IMPORT COMMERCIAL MAKES – YEAR-TO-DATE 2018

CH

EV

RO

LET

DO

DG

E

FIA

T

FOR

D

HIN

O

HO

LDE

N

ISU

ZU

MA

ZD

A

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

NIS

SAN

TO

YO

TA

VO

LKSW

A-

GE

N

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

18-Jan 13 8 35 45 26 22 57 78 36 210 441 3 50 102417-Jan 19 4 23 30 19 13 41 83 33 197 404 10 52 928

% diff -32 100 52 50 37 69 39 -6 9 7 9 -70 -4 1018-Feb 19 3 15 48 49 16 47 41 41 203 407 8 51 94817-Feb 15 2 9 35 31 19 45 94 40 191 466 10 41 998

% diff 27 50 67 37 58 -16 4 -56 3 6 -13 -20 24 -518-Mar 21 6 7 39 30 20 48 75 39 229 399 3 59 97517-Mar 19 7 9 30 41 23 64 90 45 263 602 8 48 1249

% diff 11 -14 -22 30 -27 -13 -25 -17 -13 -13 -34 -63 23 -2218-Apr 13 3 4 38 30 11 54 35 22 174 389 5 50 82817-Apr 21 4 4 33 20 22 45 54 27 187 27 187 277 908

% diff -38 -25 0 15 50 -50 20 -35 -19 -7 1341 -97 -82 -9YTD 18 66 20 61 170 135 69 206 229 138 816 1636 19 210 3775YTD 17 74 17 45 128 111 77 195 321 145 838 1499 215 418 4083

%diff -11 18 36 33 22 -10 6 -29 -5 -3 9 -91 -50 -8

AROUND THE COUNTRY PASSENGER

REGISTRATIONS

DISTAPR'18

APR'17

% CHANGE

WHA 226 327 -30.89AUC 5148 6137 -16.12HAM 714 807 -11.52THA 108 83 30.12TAU 470 517 -9.09ROT 155 143 8.39GIS 73 67 8.96NAP 264 249 6.02NEW 150 198 -24.24WAN 72 65 10.77PAL 283 345 -17.97MAS 74 69 7.25WEL 881 911 -3.29NEL 252 250 0.80BLE 54 51 5.88GRE 34 40 -15.00WES 13 -100.00CHR 1316 1557 -15.48TIM 83 98 -15.31OAM 18 34 -47.06DUN 367 405 -9.38INV 151 141 7.09TOTAL 10893 12507 -12.90

The number of registered motor ve-hicle traders in New Zealand contin-ued to drop last month, falling below

the 3500 figure for the first time since last August.

Dealer numbers traditionally track down before the renewal of licences in October.

The number of registered traders stands at 3492 as at the end of April – 11 down on the previous month.

Numbers of dealers are expected to fall until a pick-up in September.

strong demand for used electric cars.

In commercials, Toyota topped the ranks again on 389, down 13.9% for a 47% share.

Nissan took sec-ond on 174 vehicles, down 7% for 21% of the market, while Isuzu was third on 54, up 20% for 6.5% of registrations.

Ford was fourth on 38, followed by Mazda on 35.

As usual, the Toyota Hiace was the top commercial on 286 vehicles, fol-lowed by the Nissan Caravan on 44.

In third, the Toyota Dyna was the leading truck on 35 units, with the

Nissan NV200 and Mazda Bongo taking fourth and fifth on 33 and 30 respectively.

An interesting inclusion in the top 10 was the Ford Ranger - the utes popularity leading to the registration of 18 imported units from Australia.

Dealer numbers continue to soften

Used import registrations continue to collapseContinued from page 37

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STATSTALKUSED VEHICLES

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AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 39

THE 17 LEADING USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES – YEAR-TO-DATE 2018

AU

DI

BM

W

CH

EV

RO

LET

DA

IHA

TSU

FOR

D

HO

LDE

N

HO

ND

A

HY

UN

DA

I

MA

ZD

A

ME

RC

ED

ES

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

NIS

SAN

PE

UG

EO

T

SUB

AR

U

SUZ

UK

I

TO

YO

TA

VW

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

18-Jan 250 523 65 8 115 46 1356 27 2310 210 440 2629 26 809 722 3232 445 506 1371917-Jan 264 568 56 14 102 43 1308 25 1979 275 469 2268 12 543 622 3396 467 522 12933

% diff -5 -8 16 -43 13 7 4 8 17 -24 -6 16 117 49 16 -5 -5 -3 618-Feb 192 467 63 8 122 39 1232 2 1996 250 325 2220 16 696 682 2872 366 500 1204817-Feb 227 528 53 19 109 61 1308 30 1871 267 413 2200 19 546 643 3038 439 489 12260

% diff -15 -12 19 -58 12 -36 -6 -93 7 -6 -21 1 -16 27 6 -5 -17 2 -218-Mar 235 514 48 8 104 40 1188 35 1978 227 307 2132 22 704 606 2878 357 458 1184117-Mar 297 713 80 13 130 61 1449 39 2058 356 548 2543 17 605 711 3722 548 584 14474

% diff -21 -28 -40 -38 -20 -34 -18 -10 -4 -36 -44 -16 29 16 -15 -23 -35 -22 -1818-Apr 228 471 39 9 0 25 1053 23 1760 222 379 1970 14 623 604 2644 371 458 1089317-Apr 252 553 47 9 90 67 1233 33 1823 287 464 2292 15 573 626 3209 465 469 12507

% diff -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100YTD 18 677 1504 176 24 341 125 3776 64 6284 687 1072 6981 64 2209 2010 8982 1168 1464 37608YTD 17 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040 2362 1040

%diff -14 -17 -7 -48 0 -24 -7 -32 6 -23 -25 0 33 30 2 -12 -20 -8 -5

20 TOP USED IMPORT PASSENGER MODELS

MAKE MODELAPR'18

MAKE MODELAPR'17

MAZDA AXELA 537 TOYOTA COROLLA 537SUZUKI SWIFT 504 NISSAN TIIDA 533TOYOTA COROLLA 480 SUZUKI SWIFT 523MAZDA DEMIO 409 MAZDA AXELA 516NISSAN TIIDA 390 MAZDA DEMIO 417HONDA FIT 366 HONDA FIT 402SUBARU LEGACY 303 TOYOTA WISH 346TOYOTA PRIUS 265 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 290MAZDA ATENZA 248 TOYOTA PRIUS 289TOYOTA VITZ 244 SUBARU LEGACY 284TOYOTA WISH 231 MAZDA ATENZA 278NISSAN LEAF 229 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 264MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 223 TOYOTA VITZ 236TOYOTA MARKX 221 TOYOTA MARKX 223VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 202 BMW 3 SERIES 200MAZDA PREMACY 186 TOYOTA ESTIMA 189MAZDA MPV 157 HONDA ODYSSEY 185SUBARU IMPREZA 154 MAZDA MPV 185NISSAN NOTE 149 NISSAN DUALIS 174NISSAN DUALIS 146 MAZDA PREMACY 170

20 TOP USED IMPORT PASSENGER MAKES

MAKEAPR'18

APR'17

Movement% Change

Market Share

TOYOTA 2644 3209 -17.6 24.3NISSAN 1970 2292 -14.0 18.1MAZDA 1760 1823 -3.5 16.2HONDA 1053 1233 -14.6 9.7SUBARU 623 573 Up 1 8.7 5.7SUZUKI 604 626 Down 1 -3.5 5.5BMW 471 553 -14.8 4.3MITSUBISHI 379 464 Up 1 -18.3 3.5VOLKSWAGEN 371 465 Down 1 -20.2 3.4AUDI 228 252 Up 1 -9.5 2.1MERCEDES-BENZ 222 287 Down 1 -22.6 2.0FORD 88 90 -2.2 0.8LEXUS 77 74 4.1 0.7VOLVO 53 71 -25.4 0.5CHEVROLET 39 47 Up 2 -17.0 0.4JAGUAR 39 49 -20.4 0.4LAND ROVER 32 45 Up 1 -28.9 0.3MINI 26 35 Up 1 -25.7 0.2HOLDEN 25 67 Down 4 -62.7 0.2HYUNDAI 23 33 -30.3 0.2OTHER 166 219 -24.2 1.5TOTAL 10893 12507 -12.9 100.0

Used import registrations continue to collapse

Customers are likely to be more open to the deal when they’ve received a clear explanation as to how the fig-ures were derived.

Mental notes about the cost of replacing tyres, or fixing windscreens,

serve no purpose when lumped into a final figure you verbally present to the buyer.

Clearly explain each cost to clarify questions and ease any uncertainty and ultimately help you close the deal.

Invest in a sound vehicle appraisal processContinued from page 25

40 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.

UDC has money to lend. Lots of money.

Talk to us today about stock funding options for your dealership.

Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz

STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES

NEW VEHICLES COMPETITIVE FINANCE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

40 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

NEW PASSENGER MAKES

MAKEAPR'18

APR'17

Movement% Change

Market Share

MAZDA 760 710 Up 1 7.0 11.1TOYOTA 712 961 Down 1 -25.9 10.4HOLDEN 540 543 Up 1 -0.6 7.9SUZUKI 539 512 Up 1 5.3 7.9KIA 511 497 Up 2 2.8 7.5MITSUBISHI 486 423 Up 3 14.9 7.1HYUNDAI 398 562 Down 4 -29.2 5.8SUBARU 373 189 Up 3 97.4 5.4NISSAN 354 487 Down 1 -27.3 5.2HONDA 317 148 Up 3 114.2 4.6FORD 312 499 Down 5 -37.5 4.6VOLKSWAGEN 258 325 Down 2 -20.6 3.8MERCEDES-BENZ 183 175 Down 1 4.6 2.7AUDI 140 134 Up 1 4.5 2.0BMW 126 147 Down 1 -14.3 1.8SKODA 116 86 Up 2 34.9 1.7JEEP 88 129 Down 1 -31.8 1.3PEUGEOT 84 30 Up 5 180.0 1.2LEXUS 61 38 Up 3 60.5 0.9LAND ROVER 60 87 Down 3 -31.0 0.9Other 430 314 36.9 6.3Toal 6848 6996 -2.1 100.0

NEW PASSENGER MODELS

MAKE MODELAPR'18

MAKE MODELAPR'17

MAZDA CX-5 317 MAZDA CX-5 264SUZUKI SWIFT 245 KIA SPORTAGE 250KIA SPORTAGE 220 TOYOTA RAV4 237HOLDEN CAPTIVA 199 TOYOTA COROLLA 211NISSAN QASHQAI 186 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 209TOYOTA COROLLA 170 VOLKSWAGEN TIGUAN 173HONDA JAZZ 161 HYUNDAI TUCSON 167MAZDA MAZDA3 160 HOLDEN COMMODORE 161SUBARU OUTBACK 145 MITSUBISHI ASX 149MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE CROSS 142 NISSAN QASHQAI 141

SUBARU XV 141 HOLDEN CAPTIVA 137

MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 140 SUZUKI SWIFT 135

HYUNDAI KONA 134 NISSAN X-TRAIL 129

VOLKSWAGEN TIGUAN 126 FORD FOCUS 121

HYUNDAI SANTA FE 110 HYUNDAI SANTA FE 118

NISSAN X-TRAIL 110 KIA RIO 117

HOLDEN COMMODORE 107 MAZDA MAZDA3 117

TOYOTA RAV4 107 FORD ESCAPE 116

MAZDA MAZDA2 96 HYUNDAI I30 116

HYUNDAI TUCSON 94 TOYOTA YARIS 116

The latest new vehicle registration figures show a 2% drop com-

pared with April last year.There were 10,423 new

vehicles registered ac-cording to the last Motor Industry Association figures – down 212 units.

Year-to-date the market is marginally up by 1.4% (704 units) compared to the first four months of 2017.

Factors affecting the mar-ket in April included shipping delays at various ports and Toyota’s revamped fixed-price sales model for new vehicles.

Registrations of passen-

ger and SUV vehicles for the month of April were down 2.1% (148 units) on April 2017 to 6848.

And registrations of the

New vehicle registrations dip slightly

ever popular commercial vehicles also slipped slightly down 1.8% or 64 units com-pared with the same time last

year to 3575.Toyota remains the over-

all market leader with 13% market share (1310 units), followed by Ford with 11% (1115 units) and Mazda with 9% market share (893 units).

Mazda was the market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with 11% market share (760 units), followed by Toyota with 10% (712 units) and Holden with 8% market share (540 units).

In the commercial sector, Continued on page 41

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 41

UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.

UDC has money to lend. Lots of money.

Talk to us today about stock funding options for your dealership.

Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz

STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES

NEW VEHICLES COMPETITIVE FINANCE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 41

NEW COMMERCIAL MAKES (UNDER 3500KG)

MAKEAPR'18

APR'17

Movement% Change

Market Share

FORD 803 768 Up 1 4.6 22.5TOYOTA 598 810 Down 1 -26.2 16.7HOLDEN 312 322 -3.1 8.7ISUZU 281 283 Up 1 -0.7 7.9NISSAN 268 263 Up 1 1.9 7.5MITSUBISHI 258 298 Down 2 -13.4 7.2LDV 144 86 Up 3 67.4 4.0MAZDA 133 128 Down 3.9 3.7VOLKSWAGEN 122 90 35.6 3.4MERCEDES-BENZ

101 50 Up 3 102.0 2.8

Other 555 540 2.8 15.5TOTAL 3575 3638 -1.7 100.0

NEW COMMERCIAL MODELS (UNDER 3500KG)

MAKE MODEL APR'18

MAKE MODEL APR'17

FORD RANGER 745 FORD RANGER 698TOYOTA HILUX 457 TOYOTA HILUX 571HOLDEN COLORADO 306 HOLDEN COLORADO 312NISSAN NAVARA 268 MITSUBISHI TRITON 298MITSUBISHI TRITON 258 NISSAN NAVARA 263ISUZU D-MAX 205 ISUZU D-MAX 207MAZDA BT-50 133 TOYOTA HIACE 206TOYOTA HIACE 120 MAZDA BT-50 128LDV T60 76 HYUNDAI ILOAD 90FIAT DUCATO 60 FORD TRANSIT 70

Continued from page 40

Ford regained the market lead with 22% market share (803 units) followed by Toyota with 17% (598 units) and Holden with 9% market

share (312 units).The Ford Ranger was back

at the top of the bestselling vehicle model table with 745 units, followed by the Toyota Hilux with 457 units and the

Mazda CX-5 with 317 units.The pick-up/chassis cab

4×4 segment came in as the top segment for April with 15% market share, closely followed by the SUV medium

Toyota’s new way of selling vehicles has generated a relatively

quiet start with 1362 sold in April.

Dubbed the Drive Happy Project, chief executive Alistair Davis says the com-pany is happy with the result.

“We expected a significant

Toyota pleased with Drive Happy sales

segment also with 15%, and the SUV compact with 14% market share.

“The market for new ve-hicles remains at historically high levels with registrations underpinned by a range of economic factors. Net immi-gration, while reducing is still elevated based on long term trends, new vehicle prices remain competitive and the economy is stable,” MIA boss David Crawford says.

dip in sales for April,” Davis says.

“Transitioning to a new way of doing business is not going to happen overnight, or even in one month. We are in this for the long term.”

Davis says the first month

of the new financial year – April – is generally slower for its fleet, rental and lease business.

“This has allowed us to fine tune some of our system changes without the

Continued on page 42

The market leading Ranger.

42 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

STATSTALKNEW VEHICLES

UDC Finance Limited lending criteria applies.

UDC has money to lend. Lots of money.

Talk to us today about stock funding options for your dealership.

Ph 0800 500 832 or visit www.udc.co.nz

NEW VEHICLES COMPETITIVE FINANCE

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

42 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

NEW PASSENGER MAKES

ALF

A R

OM

EO

AU

DI

BM

W

CH

ER

Y

CH

RY

SLE

R

DO

DG

E

FOR

D

GR

EA

T W

ALL

HO

LDE

N

HO

ND

A

HY

UN

DA

I

JEE

P

KIA

LAN

D R

OV

ER

LEX

US

MA

ZD

A

MER

CED

ES-B

ENZ

MIN

I

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

NIS

SAN

PE

UG

EO

T

PO

RSC

HE

SKO

DA

SSA

NG

YO

NG

SUB

AR

U

SUZ

UK

I

TO

YO

TA

VO

LKSW

AG

EN

VO

LVO

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

18-Jan 12 178 187 0 1 7 846 0 777 524 553 82 762 73 62 1025 188 77 626 423 89 54 140 82 342 591 2490 300 57 250 10798

17-Jan 7 154 198 2 1 15 778 0 1381 405 540 71 603 111 55 779 222 73 647 478 73 58 106 60 236 728 1644 474 44 207 10150

% diff 71 16 -6 -100 0 -53 9 -44 29 2 15 26 -34 13 32 -15 5 -3 -12 22 -7 32 37 45 -19 51 -37 30 21 6

18-Feb 5 169 144 0 1 4 395 0 602 412 489 142 512 76 69 773 166 70 489 269 86 35 104 64 157 577 1013 342 47 203 7415

17-Feb 3 176 160 0 4 23 611 0 654 373 606 56 513 93 62 755 245 45 547 346 48 22 104 93 305 624 990 355 48 189 8050

% diff 67 -4 -10 -75 -83 -35 -8 10 -19 154 0 -18 11 2 -32 56 -11 -22 79 59 0 -31 -49 -8 2 -4 -2 7 -8

18-Mar 6 193 232 0 1 4 504 0 673 636 551 143 617 83 71 858 200 66 722 371 99 37 164 59 291 605 1196 341 53 274 9050

17-Mar 11 203 196 0 2 55 625 0 711 519 686 94 626 107 66 905 253 59 691 341 56 34 72 81 242 734 1213 386 63 199 9230

% diff -45 -5 18 -50 -93 -19 -5 23 -20 52 -1 -22 8 -5 -21 12 4 9 77 9 128 -27 20 -18 -1 -12 -16 38 -2

18-Apr 8 140 126 0 0 8 312 0 540 317 398 88 511 60 61 760 183 46 486 354 84 20 116 42 373 539 712 258 51 255 6848

17-Apr 3 134 147 0 1 13 499 0 543 148 562 129 497 87 38 10 710 46 423 487 30 29 86 65 189 512 961 325 44 278 6996

% diff 167 4 -14 -100 -38 -37 -1 114 -29 -32 3 -31 61 7500 -74 0 15 -27 180 -31 35 -35 97 5 -26 -21 16 -8 -2

YTD 18 31 680 689 0 3 23 2057 0 2592 1889 1991 455 2402 292 263 3416 737 259 2323 1417 358 146 524 247 1163 2312 5411 1241 208 982 34111

YTD 17 24 667 701 2 8 106 2513 0 3289 1445 2394 350 2239 398 221 2449 1430 223 2308 1652 207 143 368 299 972 2598 4808 1540 199 873 34426

%diff 29 2 -2 -100 -63 -78 -18 -21 31 -17 30 7 -27 19 39 -48 16 1 -14 73 2 42 -17 20 -11 13 -19 5 12 -1

NEW COMMERCIAL MAKES (UNDER 3500KG) – YEAR-TO-DATE

FIA

T

FOR

D

FOT

ON

GR

EA

T W

ALL

HIN

O

HO

LDE

N

HY

UN

DA

I

ISU

ZU

LDV

MA

ZD

A

MER

CED

ES-B

ENZ

MIT

SUB

ISH

I

MIT

SUBI

SHI

FUSO

NIS

SAN

SSA

NG

YON

G

TO

YO

TA

VOLK

SWAG

EN

OT

HE

R

TO

TAL

18-Jan 101 808 66 66 16 46 385 64 258 153 172 57 318 284 94 780 165 204 4037

17-Jan 63 788 67 45 0 42 383 68 271 87 154 40 219 276 83 698 123 266 3673

% diff 60 3 -1 47 10 1 -6 -5 76 12 43 45 3 13 12 34 -23 10

18-Feb 59 788 47 50 8 68 366 64 304 102 169 48 368 384 63 946 110 172 4116

17-Feb 64 713 66 35 8 45 364 97 255 101 186 51 282 346 52 747 76 246 3734

% diff -8 11 -29 43 0 51 1 -34 19 1 -9 -6 30 11 21 27 45 -30 10

18-Mar 69 1047 49 99 17 55 427 80 322 191 159 73 382 315 64 1225 160 244 4978

17-Mar 92 897 47 102 0 53 393 122 350 114 190 83 365 290 68 1103 115 255 4639

% diff -25 17 4 -3 4 9 -34 -8 68 -16 -12 5 9 -6 11 39 -4 7

18-May 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

17-May 75 971 72 95 0 61 348 96 351 76 186 62 501 244 44 1125 118 320 4745

% diff -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100 -100

YTD 18 289 3446 203 262 55 223 1490 252 1165 590 633 279 1326 1251 249 3549 557 887 16706

YTD 17 284 3166 218 247 8 188 1462 377 1159 388 658 224 1164 1175 243 3358 404 961 15684

%diff 2 9 -7 6 588 19 2 -33 1 52 -4 25 14 6 2 6 38 -8 7

NEW AROUND THE COUNTRY PASSENGER

REGISTRATIONSDIST

APR'18

APR'17

% CHANGE

WHA 183 149 22.82AUC 2905 3082 -5.74HAM 479 556 -13.85THA 101 71 42.25TAU 280 275 1.82ROT 126 76 65.79GIS 37 32 15.63NAP 209 205 1.95NEW 123 123 0.00WAN 96 65 47.69PAL 245 247 -0.81MAS 70 79 -11.39WEL 687 617 11.35NEL 104 84 23.81BLE 53 44 20.45GRE 21 23 -8.70WES 1 3 -66.67CHR 738 844 -12.56TIM 62 72 -13.89OAM 8 20 -60.00DUN 222 225 -1.33INV 98 104 -5.77TOTAL 6848 6996 -2.12

pressure of the usual larger sales volumes.”

Customers are still getting used to the idea of a Toyota Driveaway Price (TDP), which involves lower prices with no haggling, he says.

“There’s a transition period for us as our network of stores and customers to get used to the improvements we’re making. We’re excited for the future and the oppor-tunities these changes have opened up for us.”

Toyota pleased with Drive Happy salesContinued from page 41

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AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 43

STATSTALKSECONDHAND

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 43

SECONDHAND REGISTRATIONS − APRIL 2018SALE TYPE WHA AUC HAM THA TAU ROT GIS NAP NEW WAN PAL MAS WEL NEL BLE GRE WES CHR TIM OAM DUN INV TOTAL

Cars 2018

Public to Trader 298 5107 1089 182 616 145 68 417 182 155 1300 113 1169 215 83 36 1702 112 2 467 231 13689

Public to Public 1907 13746 3226 666 2034 1026 369 1503 965 605 1482 483 3063 1025 455 174 38 5166 528 120 1973 1099 41653

Trader to Public 580 5729 1292 311 833 357 127 632 358 247 756 198 1502 322 175 66 9 2087 194 29 709 365 16878

Cars 2017

Public to Trader 287 4607 1147 102 540 68 38 413 205 102 1040 114 1044 191 103 32 1737 127 5 415 280 12597

Public to Public 1721 13574 3231 475 2052 769 352 1421 959 452 1584 326 2858 956 431 196 89 4655 510 188 1857 904 39560

Trader to Public 566 5228 1311 184 853 256 128 553 357 123 643 199 1460 247 129 66 16 1995 202 44 614 342 15516

Cars % Change

Public to Trader 3.8 10.9 -5.1 78.4 14.1 113.2 78.9 1.0 -11.2 52.0 25.0 -0.9 12.0 12.6 -19.4 12.5 -2.0 -11.8 -60.0 12.5 -17.5 8.7

Public to Public 10.8 1.3 -0.2 40.2 -0.9 33.4 4.8 5.8 0.6 33.8 -6.4 48.2 7.2 7.2 5.6 -11.2 -57.3 11.0 3.5 -36.2 6.2 21.6 5.3

Trader to Public 2.5 9.6 -1.4 69.0 -2.3 39.5 -0.8 14.3 0.3 100.8 17.6 -0.5 2.9 30.4 35.7 0.0 -43.8 4.6 -4.0 -34.1 15.5 6.7 8.8

Motorcycles 2018

Public to Trader 113 33 19 3 3 6 4 22 3 54 13 1 29 2 13 2 320

Public to Public 62 453 128 20 95 29 12 61 62 17 61 13 131 61 32 11 3 211 17 5 53 33 1570

Trader to Public 14 114 34 6 21 10 10 13 3 19 4 51 6 6 2 45 1 1 14 6 380

Motorcycles 2017

Public to Trader 9 132 29 23 6 9 4 28 8 64 13 1 34 22 6 388

Public to Public 64 547 130 22 105 39 10 72 55 29 95 23 210 62 34 10 6 242 33 12 85 62 1947

Trader to Public 12 141 39 9 23 6 18 21 4 23 6 42 15 1 56 9 2 14 14 455

Motorcycles % change

Public to Trader -100.0 -14.4 13.8 -17.4 -50.0 -33.3 0.0 -21.4 -62.5 -15.6 0.0 0.0 -14.7 -40.9 -66.7 -17.5

Public to Public -3.1 -17.2 -1.5 -9.1 -9.5 -25.6 20.0 -15.3 12.7 -41.4 -35.8 -43.5 -37.6 -1.6 -5.9 10.0 -50.0 -12.8 -48.5 -58.3 -37.6 -46.8 -19.4

Trader to Public 16.7 -19.1 -12.8 -33.3 -8.7 66.7 -44.4 -38.1 -25.0 -17.4 -33.3 21.4 -60.0 500.0 -19.6 -88.9 -50.0 0.0 -57.1 -16.5

Trucks 2018

Public to Trader 80 640 210 10 64 17 25 75 30 24 130 26 112 60 24 7 208 28 1 61 58 1890

Public to Public 296 1513 576 117 382 143 88 219 170 74 262 88 336 181 71 51 11 689 95 33 318 201 5914

Trader to Public 130 625 221 42 141 62 39 96 75 42 114 27 168 62 29 14 7 254 40 17 114 85 2404

Trucks 2017

Public to Trader 62 645 213 18 96 29 22 74 53 33 127 33 90 93 35 10 226 25 3 66 67 2020

Public to Public 411 1800 518 103 345 133 89 236 175 92 304 80 373 179 75 44 16 826 99 25 354 199 6476

Trader to Public 126 676 265 44 164 65 36 107 86 30 150 34 153 82 44 12 3 292 45 12 123 78 2627

Trucks % change

Public to Trader 29.0 -0.8 -1.4 -44.4 -33.3 -41.4 13.6 1.4 -43.4 -27.3 2.4 -21.2 24.4 -35.5 -31.4 -30.0 -8.0 12.0 -66.7 -7.6 -13.4 -6.4

Public to Public -28.0 -15.9 11.2 13.6 10.7 7.5 -1.1 -7.2 -2.9 -19.6 -13.8 10.0 -9.9 1.1 -5.3 15.9 -31.3 -16.6 -4.0 32.0 -10.2 1.0 -8.7

Trader to Public 3.2 -7.5 -16.6 -4.5 -14.0 -4.6 8.3 -10.3 -12.8 40.0 -24.0 -20.6 9.8 -24.4 -34.1 16.7 133.3 -13.0 -11.1 41.7 -7.3 9.0 -8.5

All the Auto Industry HOT NEWS every day as it happens on www.autotalk.co.nzSubscribe online for FREE twice weekly updates direct to your email

Secondhand vehicle transactions rose in May - likely boosted by traders looking to supplement a

shortage of import stock.Dealer sales for the month totalled

16,878, up over 1,000 units or 8.8% on last year.

Dealer purchases were up a corre-sponding 8.7% to 13,689.

Public transactions rose 5.3% to 41,653.

Bikes went in the other direction, with a massive 16.5% fall to 380 units, while trade-in volume fell 17.5% to 320.

Public changes of ownership were down 19.4% to 1947.

Commercials had a poor month, with trader sales down 8.5% to 2404, and purchases down 6.4% to 1890.

Public-to-public registrations fared worst, down 8.7% to 6476.

Secondhand strong as alternative stock sought

44 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

STATSTALKTRUCKS

STATSTALKBIKES

44 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

NEW BIKE MODELSMAKE MODEL APR'18TNT MOTOR ROMA 2T 30FACTORY BUILT ARIIC 19SUZUKI UZ50 19SUZUKI GSX150 FDZA GIXXER 16PIAGGIO ZIP 50 2T 15HARLEY DAVIDSON STREET 18 STREET 500 12HONDA GLC 150SH 11TRIUMPH SPEEDMASTER 1200 DW 11KAWASAKI EX 400G L 10SUZUKI GSX150 DXA GIXXER 10

USED BIKE MAKESMAKE

APR’18

APR'17

% Change% of Market

HARLEY DAVIDSON 79 75 5.3 43.4HONDA 15 7 114.3 8.2SUZUKI 12 5 140.0 6.6DUCATI 11 17 -35.3 6.0TRIUMPH 10 14 -28.6 5.5HYOSUNG 9 0 4.9KAWASAKI 9 4 125.0 4.9YAMAHA 6 11 -45.5 3.3BMW 5 2 150.0 2.7BUELL 4 0 2.2Other 22 17 29.4 12.1TOTAL 182 152 19.7 100.0

NEW BIKE MAKES

MAKEAPR'18

YTD'18

APR'17

% Change

Market Share %

SUZUKI 113 522 89 27.0 18.4YAMAHA 60 342 61 -1.6 9.8HONDA 49 241 29 69.0 8.0HARLEY DAVIDSON 48 266 43 11.6 7.8TRIUMPH 48 186 30 60.0 7.8KAWASAKI 36 195 30 20.0 5.9BMW 35 119 23 52.2 5.7TNT MOTOR 33 141 7 371.4 5.4KTM 27 128 13 107.7 4.4FACTORY BUILT 23 79 15 53.3 3.7PIAGGIO 20 76 9 122.2 3.3MOPED 15 76 12 25.0 2.4FORZA 13 99 7 85.7 2.1ROYAL ENFIELD 13 66 23 -43.5 2.1APRILIA 12 89 23 -47.8 2.0TGB 10 35 3 233.3 1.6INDIAN 9 69 4 125.0 1.5DUCATI 8 30 9 -11.1 1.3ADLY 7 23 6 16.7 1.1ZNEN 7 30 2 250.0 1.1Other 29 230 50 -42.0 4.7TOTAL 615 3042 488 26.0 100.0

Talk to Dale Stevenson about advertising your business here with AutoTalk – in print and online

Phone: + 64 21 446 214 | Email: dale@automediagroup.co.nz | www.autotalk.co.nz

Do you sell or deal with Motorcycles? your

ad here

The bike market had an extremely strong May 2018, up over a quarter

year-on-year.Registrations of new

bikes hit 615 units, up 26% from 488 this time last year.

Suzuki was the most popular brand on 113 bikes at 27% for an 18.4% market share.

Yamaha was second on 60 bikes, down 1.6% for 9.8% of the market, while Honda

took third on 49 bikes, up 69% for an 8% stake.

Tied for fourth were the Harley Davidson and Triumph, up 11.6% and 60% respectively.

Kawasaki took sixth on 36, followed by BMW on 35, TNT Motor on 33, KTM on 27 and Factory Built on 23.

The top three models for the month were all scooters - with the TNT Roma the most popular unit on 30 bikes.

Scooters lead booming bike market

The Factory Built ARIIC and Suzuki UZ50 tied for second on 19 units. The Suzuki GSX150 Gixxer was the most popular bike on 16, followed by the Piaggio Zip 50 on 15.

Imports on a highUsed import bike registra-

tions jumped nearly a fifth for the month - up 19.7% to 182

units from 152 a year ago.Harley Davidson was the

top brand on 79 units, up 5.3% for a 43.4% share.

Honda took second on 15, up 114.3% for an 8.2% market share, followed in third by Suzuki on 12 bikes, up 140% for 6.6% of the marker.

Ducati was fourth on 11, followed by Triumph on 10.

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 45 AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 45

NEW TRUCK MAKES (OVER 3500KG)

MAKEAPR'18

APR'17

% CHANGE

MARKETYTD'18

YTD'17

ISUZU 76 76 0.0 16.3 358 371HINO 54 48 12.5 11.6 223 188FUSO 47 65 -27.7 10.1 264 299FIAT 31 21 47.6 6.6 120 105FACTORY BUILT 30 1 2900.0 6.4 43 7VOLVO 30 39 -23.1 6.4 108 159KENWORTH 28 14 100.0 6.0 96 70IVECO 25 16 56.3 5.4 83 61MERCEDES-BENZ 23 29 -20.7 4.9 107 116SCANIA 20 16 25.0 4.3 59 71Other 103 83 24.1 22.1 436 370TOTAL 467 408 14.5 100.0 1897 1817

USED TRUCK MAKES

MAKEAPR'18

APR'17

% CHANGE

MARKETYTD'18

YTD'17

ISUZU 44 39 12.8 26.3 175 172TOYOTA 36 34 5.9 21.6 137 137HINO 30 20 50.0 18.0 135 111NISSAN 14 10 40.0 8.4 57 49MITSUBISHI 11 19 -42.1 6.6 77 87FUSO 7 1 600.0 4.2 13 5MERCEDES-BENZ 4 1 300.0 2.4 18 11DAF 2 2 0.0 1.2 7 5IVECO 2 2 0.0 1.2 13 8KENWORTH 2 2 0.0 1.2 7 12Other 15 20 -25.0 9.0 94 90TOTAL 167 150 11.3 100.0 733 687

STATSTALKTRUCKS

Truck registrations were extremely strong in April,

although fortunes for the top brands were mixed.

The market for new vehicles over 3500kg GVM was up 14.5% to 467 units, from 408 this time last year. Overall in 2018 1897 trucks have hit the roads, against 1817 this time last year.

Isuzu remains top of the market on 76 units, yet was unchanged from last year despite the market growth. It is holding 16.3% of the trade.

Hino in second showed sold growth - up 12.5% to 54 units, an 11.6% share, while Fuso fell, by 27.7%, to 47 trucks - a 10.1% stake in the market.

In fourth, Fiat saw 31 units hit the road - up 47.6% for 6.6% of the market. In fifth, “factory built” units totalled 30,

tied with Volvo, that brand down 23.1%.

Kenworth was next on 28, followed by Iveco on 25, Mer-cedes-Benz on 23 and Scania on 20.

Imported truck registrations were also on the up - by 11.3% to 167 units.

Isuzu lead this segment, up 12.8% to 44 vehicles for a 26.3% share.

Toyota took second on 36, up 5.9% for a 21.6% share, followed by Hino on 30, up 50% for 18% of the trade.

Nissan was fourth on 14 trucks, fol-lowed by Mitsubishi on 11.

Strong month for trucks

one. Ask for referrals.8. Remember it’s not

all about price. Every business needs to run in profit, which can be challenging at the best of times. Don’t be afraid to hold your ground, it’s better to get your cus-tomer to recognise you and offering quality at a fair price.

Many of us grind away on a day-to-day basis without a proper review of our busi-ness model. Why? Because we don’t like change, and

many of us are scared of what we may uncover.

Remember it’s easy to sit on one’s behind when the market is hot. When it cools, the switched on business owner will address things quickly and move in the right direction. Vehicles sales and service are only one financial driver in your business. Sure, firstly you need to sell a ve-hicle, but are you taking ad-vantage of every profit centre available to you regarding the sale of that unit.

Review each sale and your penetration levels for all the

Ready, aim, fire…Continued from page 34 associated profit centres.

Review your business model and set a new per unit per-formance benchmark, which will give you every opportu-nity to maximise your profit.

Know where you are driving your business. If you are letting your business drive itself, is really only just cruising, and cruising, is just another name for a holiday.

To succeed you need your head in the game and to be in the driver’s seat, not being chauffeur driven, and in the back seat.

You need to leave all of your bad habits behind you,

look towards the market leaders, the performers, the achievers, and plan to run with the winners.

Take a look around you, at your peers in this wonder-ful industry. The ones that are smiling and telling you things are “excellent”, guess what, they’ve got a plan, and for most that plan involves performance, which in turn drives profit.

If you need help to get a plan together, give one of my team a call. We may not have all the answers, but two minds are always better than one.

46 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

TRIBUNALTALK

In October 2017, the purchaser agreed to pay $36,000 for a 2006 Jag-

uar XK from the trader. She arranged for a pre-purchase inspection, which identified 11 defects, which included:• broken lower control

arm bush.• broken front height

sensor.• broken rear height

sensor.• broken driver seat

chrome lever.• low rear brake pads.• missing rear parcel tray.• damaged hood lining.• worn wiper blades.• oil level was low and

dirty – the vehiclerequired a service.

• noise in the frontsuspension.

• noise in the rearsuspension.

Following email corre-spondence with the pur-chaser, the trader agreed to rectify each of the issues identified during the inspec-tion. When she completed the transaction, she says the

Withey v Moto Limited

trader reassured her that, aside from the missing parcel tray, each of the issues had been rectified. 

Shortly after purchase, the vehicle was assessed by an auto electrical business, who identified that the de-fects with the lower control arm bushes, rear brake pads and height sensors had not been rectified. 

The purchaser then com-plained to the NZ Transport Agency. She alleged that, given the defects with the vehicle, it should not have passed a warrant of fitness inspection before it was sold to her.

The NZTA found that the vehicle was highly likely to have a range of faults and agreed with her:• All height sensors were

damaged or broken. NZTransport Agency notedthat the front and rearheight sensor link armswere not connected.The link arm centreswere deteriorated to theextent that the centre ofthe link arms would nolonger connect to theball. An unsuccessfulattempt had been madeto attach the link armsto the balls using a cabletie.

• All lower control armbushes were damaged.The lower control arm

bushes had significantly visible cracking between the steel outer case and the rubber centre part of the bush.

• There was a loud knock-ing noise from the frontand rear suspension,with corrosion evidentin the front struts within150mm of the suspen-sion component mount-ing point.

The purchaser also ad-vised the tribunal the hood lining was not repaired, the brake pads and driver’s door chrome handle were not replaced.

The trader, in corre-spondence with the pur-chaser and the tribunal sug-gests at least some of the responsibility for this failure on to the company who performed the compliance inspection when the vehicle was imported into New Zealand, and the company who performed the warrant of fitness inspection before it was sold.

The Tribunal, however, rejects that is a factor in this case.

“Although those compa-nies appear to have missed defects that should have been identified, their over-sights provide no defence to (the trader). The Act is a strict liability statute, and (the

Continued on page 47

Misled over faulty Jag

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 47

TRIBUNALTALK

In March 2017, the purchaser agreed to pay $16,585 for a 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan from the

trader.A month after taking ownership,

the purchaser had the vehicle as-sessed by a Volkswagen dealer, who found a list of faults - the adjudica-tor accepted two as breaking the acceptable quality guarantee of the Consumer Guarantees Act - a leaking rocker cover gasket and a seatbelt fault.

Other faults were either repaired by the trader, were cosmetic and pre-sent at the time of sale, or were not of an issue that the car would not meet warrant of fitness standards.

In September, the vehicle was in-spected by another workshop, this time it had a fresh leak from its rocker cover gasket that requires repair. Further, the vehicle had a missing bolt in its driveshaft donut that needed replace-ment. Again, the adjudicator felt these breached acceptable quality guarantee.

A further fault - a bolt missing from a brake calliper - did not. This fault arose because of substandard repair work performed on the vehicle in April 2017, rather than any underlying fault with the vehicle. This is, however, a breach of the CGA, which requires that all repairs must be performed with reason-able skill and care.

Further faults were repaired by the trader or dismissed as not relevant.

The adjudicator found that overall the faults were not serious enough to uphold rejection of the vehicle.

“The vehicle was eight years old when (the purchaser) purchased it and had travelled 79,296 kms. I consider that a reasonable consumer would have realistic expectations as to the durability of a used European vehicle of this age and mileage, and would under-stand that such vehicles can develop faults of this nature. For example, used European vehicles frequently develop oil leaks, such as the rocker cover gas-ket leak. Such a fault is not sufficient to justify rejection. 

“Likewise, the remaining faults - the seatbelt faults and the missing bolt in the driveshaft donut - are not suf-ficient to justify rejection. They were easily rectified and did not make the vehicle unsafe. They are not failures of substantial character.”

The adjudicator also rejected com-pensation for the purchaser for the costs of the driveshaft donut and cali-per bolt - as the trader had not been given a chance to rectify the vehicle.

The purchaser also alleged she was misled by the trader’s failure to provide a copy of the Certifica-tion Check Sheet prepared by VTNZ when it certified the vehicle. She says she asked for the Check Sheet, but it was not provided to her. She says that she would not have purchased the vehicle if she had known that

VTNZ noted that the vehicle had a split CV boot and oil leak from the engine and rear differential.

The adjudicator noted there is no legal obligation to disclose the Check Sheet and was not satisfied that a consumer would have a reasonable ex-pectation that the trader would disclose the Check Sheet. 

“Further there was nothing notable about the information contained in the Check Sheet that meant it should be disclosed in this case. The items identi-fied in the Check Sheet - the split CV boot and potential oil leaks - are not out of the ordinary for a used Euro-pean vehicle of this age and mileage and were certainly not sufficient for the vehicle to fail certification.”

The tribunal did not uphold the request to reject the vehicle, though it ordered the dealer to repair the leaking rocker cover gasket.

Stockwell v Spot One Limited

‘Used European vehicles frequently develop oil leaks’

trader) engaged in mislead-ing conduct by representing that the vehicle’s defects had been rectified when they had not.

The tribunal found the trader had engaged in misleading conduct when it

advised the purchaser that the defects identified had been rectified. 

“That representation was misleading because many of the defects, including sig-nificant defects that should have caused the vehicle to fail a warrant of fitness in-

spection, were not rectified.”The purchaser obtained

an estimate of $5,360.75 from a Jaguar dealer to correct the issues and other items - repairing the defects that were in place at the time of purchase will likely exceed $4,000. 

The adjudicator ordered the cancellation of the sale of the vehicle - and ordered

the trader to pay the pur-chaser $36,232.50.

It declined other re-quests, including payment for fuel and insurance for the Jaguar, travel to Auckland to purchase the vehicle, and depreciation on a vehicle the purchaser held on to waiting for the Jaguar situation to be resolved.

Continued from page 46

Misled over faulty Jag

48 | AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz

DIARYTALK

THE DIARY AutoTalk’s group editor Scott Morgan looks at the month gone by on AutoTalk.co.nz

Continued on page 49

April 3New Mini Garage for AucklandA new Mini Garage will be part of Auckland City BMW’s latest dealership in the city’s south-east.

The new BMW dealership to be built on Te Irirangi Drive was announced last year, however, no mention of a Mini Garage has been made until now.

Auckland City BMW manag-ing director Ian Gibson told AutoTalk it’s the right area of Auckland to add a Mini Garage.

April 4End in sight for enhanced ship inspectionImporters bringing vehicles in from Japan are set for a reprieve.

Enhanced inspection processes for all ships coming in from Japan, put in place following the stink bug crisis, are set to end on April 30, the Ministry for Primary Industries told AutoTalk.

Compulsory recall for Takata airbagsMore than 50,000 vehicles with faulty alpha-type Takata airbags are being recalled by the Government.

And that could be followed by another 257,000 vehicles, consumer affair minister Kris Faafoi says.

The plan comes after Australia’s move to recall more than two million vehicles with the problem.

April 5Top awards for Rolls Royce Auckland

Rolls Royce Motor Cars Auck-land managing director Ian Gibson had to buy an extra luggage bag after his dealer-ship won two trophies at the brand’s Global Dealer Awards in London.

The dealership picked up the Provenance Dealer of the Year Award, which recognised impressive sales of the brand’s used approved vehicles.

It also won the award for Best Phantom Launch, which Gibson had filmed at a venue in Coatesville last year.

VIA working to resolve Takata issueThe Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association (VIA) is joining other industry groups to work through the Govern-ment’s compulsory recall of vehicles with alpha Takata airbags.

It will meet with the Motor Industry Association and new vehicle distributors on April 11 to agree the process and terms for managing replace-ment of recalled airbags in used imports.

Both groups will then meet with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) working group on April 12 so the proposed measures can be approved by the Gov-ernment. 

April 6Import registrations down nearly a fifthDelays caused by the brown marmorated stink bug issue have taken their toll on the used import market – down nearly a fifth year-on-year in March.

Passenger car registra-tions tumbled 18.2% to 11,841 units during the month, from 14,474 a year ago. For the year the market is now down 5% to a total of 37,608.

Commercials took a more significant hit – down 21.9% to 975 units from 1249 last year. That segment is now down 7% to 2947 for the year. 

April 9Market steady despite slow March: TurnersAn 18% drop in used imports didn’t dampen the used car market too much, Turners says.

“Compared to the “bump-er” March 2017, 2018’s March was slightly more sedate: 4% down, mainly caused by ex-overseas registrations dipping by a whopping 18%.”

Overall, year-to-date figures show change of ownerships and used car registrations are down just 0.6% – the same amount that new passenger car sales are down year-on-year.

April 10$85k price tag for Ranger RaptorFord New Zealand has con-firmed pricing for its upcom-ing Raptor version of the Ford Ranger – $84,990.

The special model rides on bespoke suspension, has unique styling, and is pow-ered by a 2-litre turbocharged diesel engine matched to a ten-speed automatic trans-mission.

“We’re unbelievably excited to confirm that the Ranger Raptor is coming to New Zealand in 2018,” says Simon Rutherford, managing director Ford New Zealand.

Holden NZ boss recalled to AustraliaHolden New Zealand manag-ing director Kristian Aquilina has been called home to take over the brand’s Australian marketing efforts.

The brand is reeling across the Tasman after March sales results that were the worst it has experienced since it began selling cars in 1948.

Sales of both the new Com-

modore and the Equinox SUV were disappointingly low.

April 13Taiwanese firms eye NZ aftermarketMajor opportunities exist for Taiwanese companies in the New Zealand auto aftermarket.

This is the opinion of David Vinsen, CEO of VIA who is leading a delegation of 12 NZ companies to the annual Taipei AutoTronics exhibition this week.

Vinsen was a keynote speaker and outlined oppor-tunities in the EV, intelligent transport and electronic retro-fitting markets.

New carpooling website launchedAuckland’s traffic congestion has prompted four French shareholders living there to establish Easy As Carpooling.

They’re passionate about preserving New Zealand’s natural habitat, sharing their cars and using T2 and T3 lanes, which became a natural habit for them.

So they’ve provided a website that offers a carpool-ing service for commuters and travellers.

April 16EV selection set to soarNew electric vehicles will hit the market at a rapid pace over the next two years, non-profit group Drive Electric says.

That is because the push towards electrifying the world’s vehicle fleet is gather-ing momentum, with many countries setting deadlines of between 2030 and 2040 to end the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.

Drive Electric board mem-ber Dean Sheed says original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been pouring money into electric and au-tonomous vehicles to keep up with the deadlines.

AUTOTALK MAY 2018 | www.autotalk.co.nz | 49

DIARYTALK

Continued from page 48

Continued on page 50

April 17Honda welcomes ToyotaThere are arguably differences but Toyota is not the first dis-tributor in New Zealand to shift to a fixed-price system with dealers acting as agents – as Honda New Zealand has been keen to point out.

The brand launched its sys-tem, the “Honda Price Prom-ise”, 18 years ago, something pointed out in marketing – in-cluding a full-page newspaper ad – that has appeared since Toyota’s announcement.

Honda New Zealand mar-keting manager Nadine Bell says the ads are coincidental and had been planned aside from Toyota’s move for the start of the financial year. 

Car yard worker gets $2500 for unjustifiable dismissalAn Auckland car yard worker allegedly told to “f…. off” by his boss has been awarded $2500 by the Employment Relations Authority for unjustifiable dismissal.

Morehu (Maurice) Rollo, a yard assistant at Dean Auto-motive, became involved in a heated discussion with boss Marcus Dean on June 7 last year, the NZ Herald reports.

Rollo alleged Dean was “ripping him off” over bereave-ment leave, believing he was entitled to three days paid leave.

Mustang to replace Falcon in Supercar racingFord has confirmed it is sup-porting Australian Supercar teams in a shift from the defunct Falcon model to the Mustang sports car.

Ford Australia president Graeme Whickman confirmed the move at a press confer-ence today, alongside man-agement of DJR Team Penske and Tickford racing.

The move is part of an expansion of the “Ford Per-formance” brand in Australia, which will cover the Fiesta ST, Focus RS, Ranger Raptor and Mustang models. 

April 18Vauxhall in massive dealer cullThe Vauxhall brand, alongside its European-cousin Opel, is about to face a massive reduc-tion in its dealer network.

The brands were acquired from General Motors by Peugeot-parent PSA last year and were sisters to Australa-sia’s Holden – sharing many of the same products. Opel still builds the Astra, Cascada and Commodore for Holden.

Jobs have already been cut at the firm’s United Kingdom production plants, while the latest announcement is ex-pected to see dealer numbers drop from 326 – the second most in the UK behind Ford – to around 200. That is similar to the number of dealers Volkswagen has.

April 19Japan heat treatment system operationalJEVIC`s heat treatment system to kill bugs in vehicles and machinery is operational in Japan and has been approved by the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).

“The purpose of imple-menting the heat treatment chamber is to treat vehicles in Japan found with live insects,” JEVIC NZ chief executive Euan Philpot says.

“This is similar to that of the system in Auckland. Heat treat-ment is an approved treatment by MPI for this purpose. The implementation of heat treat-ment is an addition to JEVIC`s current system.”

April 20Mercedes X-Class lifts ute refinement to a new levelThere has always been two Mercedes-Benz divisions – one for passenger cars, the other for commercial vehi-cles – but the new X-class ute range is where those tribes of the Daimler nation merge.

The X is the commercial division’s baby, developed primarily as another arrow in the quiver of a group totally dedicated to making and sell-ing heavy trucks and light vans. However, it’ll be sold by a mixture of 11 passenger car and commercial dealers in New Zealand, a reflection perhaps of the way double-

cab utes can now seamlessly cross market boundaries to meet both business and recre-ational needs.

April 23NZ carefully watching Australian financial inquiryNew Zealand regulators are keeping a close eye on the outcome of an inquiry into Australia’s banking and finan-cial services industries.

The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry is looking into issues across the sec-tors including car finance and insurance.

The commission’s findings could impact in New Zealand, with all of its major banks be-ing Australian-owned.

Mazda Connect coming to SilverdaleA partnership between Auto-motive Holdings Group New Zealand (AHG) and Mazda NZ will result in a new customer experience for north Auck-landers.

Mazda Connect, located at Silverdale Shopping Centre, will be the brand’s first-ever permanent automotive retail experience store in NZ.

The interactive showroom will allow its customers to have a greater involvement in the purchasing of their new vehicle, including building their personalised Mazda on a large interactive screen.

When you are looking to recruit new senior staff you want the very best person available.The very best are probably not looking to change jobs and that’s where AutoTalk comes in.We reach pretty much near all the people in senior management in the auto sales industry – the people that you need to recruit. That’s why when Seek or Trade Me won’t cut it, more people advertise their senior recruitment with AutoTalk.

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fran@automediagroup.co.nz 021 933 279

We deliver people that ARE NOT LOOKING FOR JOBS...

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AussieTalk Diary AutoTalk Australia’s editor Scott Murray looks at the month gone by on autotalk.com.au

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Continued from page 49

April 24New research shows seatbelt deaths still a serious problemPeople in rural areas, driving for work and the elderly are all groups that have members dy-ing because they’re not wear-ing seatbelts, new research suggests.

The AA Research Founda-tion led a project in part-nership with the Ministry of Transport, NZ Police, NZ Transport Agency and ACC to look in depth at 200 deaths where people were not buck-led up.

“When we analysed the 200 deaths to understand the types of people involved, we found that along with the young, risky drivers that people might expect to feature, the other common groups were people in rural areas, people driving

for work, the elderly and tour-ists,” says AA research manager Simon Douglas.

April 26Nissan to expand dealership concept worldwideNissan has announced plans to encourage all of its 9000 deal-ers worldwide to shift to a new look and retail system.

All Nissan-brand dealer-ships will be encouraged to align with the “Nissan Retail Concept”, or NRC.

The new concept aims to improve all aspects of the customer experience at Nissan dealerships, including facility design, service process and digital environment. More than 400 dealerships in 30 countries have already made the change.

Positive response to Toyota changesToyota New Zealand’s changes

to its new car sales model are already proving successful for one Auckland dealership group.

Manukau Toyota chief executive Michael Gapes told AutoTalk the shift from deal-erships to stores, with fixed prices, is working well.

“We’re well ahead of where we were at this time last year in April. It’s a small snapshot, but people that have bought cars like the process.” 

Ford Australia slammed for PowerShift conductFord Australia has been hit with the maximum penalty un-der Australian Consumer Law for its handling of the Power-Shift transmission fault.

Ford must pay A$10 million dollars for “unconscionable conduct” in handling 10,500 customer complaints about Fiesta, Focus and EcoSport PowerShift transmission failures.

The six-speed dual-clutch automatics in more than 75,000 cars were widely complained about for noise, shuddering, jerking and shut-ting down completely.

April 10Holden NZ boss recalled to AustraliaHolden New Zealand manag-ing director Kristian Aquilina has been called home to take over the brand’s Australian marketing efforts.

The brand is reeling across the Tasman after March sales results that were the worst it has experienced since it began selling cars in 1948.

Sales of both the new Commodore and the Equinox SUV were disappointingly low.

April 18Vauxhall in massive dealer cullThe Vauxhall brand, alongside its European-cousin Opel, is about to face a massive re-

duction in its dealer network.The brands were acquired

from General Motors by Peugeot-parent PSA last year and were sisters to Australa-sia’s Holden – sharing many of the same products. Opel still builds the Astra, Cascada and Commodore for Holden.

Jobs have already been cut at the firm’s United Kingdom production plants, while the latest announcement is ex-pected to see dealer numbers drop from 326 – the second most in the UK behind ford – to around 200. That is similar to the number of dealers Volkswagen has.

April 20 Dealer association urges caution opening import floodgates

The Australian Automotive Dealer Association says sena-tor David Leyonhjelm needs to remain focused on lowering crippling new car taxes, and not allowing counterproduc-tive used imports.

Leyonhjelm’s Australian Financial Review article last week shows unwavering support for the removal of vehicle tariffs and Luxury Car Tax (LCT) from new cars to not only raise the national fleet age, but also make it safer, less pollutant and more affordable.

However, the AADA oppos-es the Leyonhjelm’s views on opening up late-model used vehicle imports, similar to New Zealand’s policy implemented in the 1980s which drove down the price of new cars.

April 23RACT the most satisfying general insurerThe Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania has been named the most satisfying general

insurance brand in Australia.RACT outdid Defence

Service Homes Insurance, AMP, Elders, Shannons, RAA (South Australia), Bupa and RAC (Western Australia), with 93.5% of their respec-tive customers “very or fairly satisfied”.

April 26thEx-AHG boss takes major stake in WA Audi dealershipFormer Automotive Holdings Group boss Bronte Howson has taken a majority stake in Western Australia’s sole Audi dealership.

The deal follows Howson finishing a non-compete period after ending 17 years as AHG’s managing direc-tor, The West Australian reports.

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DIARYTALK

TransportTalk DiaryTransportTalk New Zealand editor Nigel Moffiet looks at the month gone by on www.transporttalk.co.nz

EVTalk Diary EVtalk New Zealand editor Geoff Dobson looks at the month gone by on www.evtalk.co.nz

April 3Men miss the vroom-vroomBuying an electric vehicle doesn’t seem to do much for some men’s macho image.

The roar of an internal combustion engine (ICE) is apparently more manly than the quiet, powerful serenity of an electric engine which appeals more to women.

That was a common opin-ion in the latest poll from Flip the Fleet.

April 4EVworld Conference in north and south this year

Challenges to achieve the government’s target of 64,000 electric vehicles (EVs) by 2021 will be among topics at the upcoming EVworld Conference.

This year the conference is being held twice – in the North Island on August 10-11, and the South Island on November 23-24.

April 9EV numbers continue climbingLike yeast, electric vehicle numbers in New Zealand continue to rise.

EVs here hit 7233 in March – 333 more than the previous month.

April 17New Zealand businesses preparing for EVsNew Zealand businesses are increasingly embracing more sustainable transport options to get their employees from A to B.

Businesses are safeguard-ing their future by adding a small number of electric vehicles (EVs) to their fleets – preparing for when EVs could be the norm, says specialist vehicle leasing and finance company Driveline.

April 19NZ driverless vehicle adoption requires law changeLaw changes are needed soon to ensure driverless vehicles can be used legally

on New Zealand roads, a New Zealand Law Foundation study concludes.

Study author Michael Cameron says a complete overhaul of law and policy around driverless vehicles is required.

Stop war – drive EVsDriving an electric vehicle can help the world avoid war.

That’s one unexpected response to a Flip the Fleet poll on reasons for people buying an EV.

“Oil played a huge part almost all wars since WW2,” the respondent says.

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Vehicle industry news

April 3Bus union slams overseas recruitmentFirst Union bus organiser Graham McKean is slamming plans to recruit more drivers from overseas.

Ritchies Coachlines has made an Approval In Prin-cipal (AIP) request with Immigration New Zealand to recruit 110 migrant workers.

April 5Forestry gears up for Wairoa rail hubSupport from the forestry sec-tor and KiwiRail is critical for

the success of the proposed Wairoa rail hub, a forestry boss says.

Hawke’s Bay Forestry Group chief executive Keith Dolman says local forestry operators have committed around 20% forestry volume to rail and are committed to the reopening of the line, the Wairoa Star reports.

“If KiwiRail committed to four to six daily truck loads to a Wairoa railhead, this commitment would be much greater,” Dolman told the Wairoa Star.

April 12Govt to end offshore oil and gas exploration

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced an end to New Zealand’s off-shore oil and gas exploration.

“There will be no further offshore oil and gas explora-tion permits granted,” she says.

There are 31 oil and gas exploration permits active with 22 offshore.

April 17Fonterra ditches controversial payment policyFonterra is being praised for backtracking on a controver-sial payment term policy.

Concerns were raised last year when the dairy giant told around 3600 suppliers they would have to wait up to 60 days for payment.

However, minister for small business Stuart Nash was the first to congratulate Fonterra on ditching the

policy, announcing the news on Tuesday. 

April 23NZTA cancels hundreds of towing certificationsThe NZ Transport Agency is revoking the certifications for hundreds of towbars fitted to heavy vehicles due to serious safety concerns.

Revocation notices are being sent to the owners of 802 heavy vehicles fitted with towbars certified by Peter Wastney Engineering Ltd.

The action is being taken to address concerns identi-fied through visual inspec-tions of vehicles carried out by specialist certifiers as part of the NZ Transport Agency’s response to broader safety issues relating to Peter Wast-ney Engineering Ltd. 

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