New car sales accelerate to pre-crisis levels in New Zealand

New car sales in New Zealand last month surged back up to levels last seen before the global financial crisis, the Motor Industry Association (MIA) announced Monday.

New vehicle registrations hit 7,946, up 10.6 percent on February last year, with commercial vehicles up 38.4 percent to 2, 148, the highest for a February month since 1982.

Passenger car registrations were up 2.9 percent to 5,798.

"This result shows the new vehicle market is consistent with levels of sales pre the global financial crisis. The commercial vehicle registrations of 2,148 units is particularly pleasing, being only the fourth time since 1981 sales exceeded 2,000 units," MIA Chief Executive Officer David Crawford said in a statement.

The previous times commercial vehicle sales surpassed the 2,000 mark were in 1982, 1984 and 2008, he said.

Toyota remained the market leader taking 18.4 percent of total registrations, followed by Ford and then Nissan.

New car sales surged by 19 percent in New Zealand last year to 100,794, the third time since 1990 that new vehicle sales broke the 100,000 mark.