MOTOR TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 129, 2 June 1936, Page 10

MOTOR TRADE

FIGURES ANALYSED NEW-CAR REGISTRATIONS LAST YEAR'S SALES

A news item last month announced that the Remuera arrived at Wellington from England with her holds full of motor-cars, the shipment comprising a total of 27!). Such a shipment provides some index, though, of course, not by any means a comprehensive one, of the sales of new cars taking place in New Zealand and also of the scientific basis to which the importation of cars has been reduced "since reliable figures have become available as a result of New Zealand's registration system.

It can bo taken for granted that those 279 cars would not have been import-1 ed had not it been estimated by the importers that the state of the market was such as to warrant the orders lor them being placed. It is essential to the importers to be able to figure out some distance ahead what requirement* are likely to be so as to be able to cope with the demand without overstocking, which is a serious matter in the motor business in the event ot a sudden slump, not only because of the money that would be involved but also because of the huge amount of space required for the storing of cars. It is necessary that sales keep moving, but the importing side of the business which is a most important part, is well handled on sound business lines by about five or six concerns which deal with about 90 per cent, of the imports. WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW.

Probably because of the gieal changes that have taken place, in design during recent years public attent on has been drawn to new cars more han ever before, and the general impression is perhaps that ast year, for instance, the number o. new cS sold in New Zealand was greater than for any other year in he history of the motor-car trade m the Dominion. But that impression is eVroneous. Sales were undeniably good, following on a particularly lean period, but the number of new cars sold beS en the end of March 1930 and the end of March this year did not i each the total of new cars sold between March 1928, and March, 1929. I'rom toe end of March, 1935, to the end of i March of this year, figures made available to a "Post" reporter today by Mr T F Cousins, secretary of the iNew Zealand Motor Trade Association show toe number of new cars sold as 18 comoared with a total of ia,J4a iwu thTend of March, 1928, to the end of March 1929. The sales are on the up So however, and it is expected that fhe figures for this year will show an even greater improvement. In 1929 motor registrations m New Zealand reached their peak. Th« vn=p from 1927 until 1929, wnen uiy Itoted to drop down. The decline connued until 1933, since when the reSations have been moun,tmg, but they are not yet back to the u-J figures.

SCRAPPING OF CARS. Thc number of cars licensed as at, TVfirrh 31, 1935, was 137,897, ana in<mimber of new cars sold between that X and the end of March of this year was 18128 so that if these two sets of figures are added together they give a total of 156,025 cars, but at the end of March last the number ™ licensed was not that t° lal the number of cars taken off toe load during the year thus being 3970 The.e ncures are interesting in that xney show that the replacement question has an important bearing on the number of new-car sales. Taking the average life of a car as eleven years Mr. Cousins, in reply to a Question, said he thought it would take eleven or twelve thousand cars to Provide adequately i for replacements, whereas for the yeai ended March 31 last the number of cars shown as having been scrapped was not quite 4000. This means that here are a large number of secondhand cars about. Discussing this aspect Mr. Cousins said he did not suggest that all these cars should be 'scrapoed because they would not run but in his opinion the average car had passed its economic life when it was over eleven years of age and there were many cars being run which *eie uneconomic. There were also some cars being run which were unsafe Mu Cousins reiterated that he felt the Replacement figure would go up iimil it was eleven or twelve thousand. FUTURE REQUIREMENTS. Mr. Cousins expressed thc opinion that the saturation point m car sa.es i„ New Zealand was not m sight and would not be for some time to come He said he felt that somewhere round about 15.000 or 20,000 new cars were likely to be sold yearly for some years. Apart irom replacements, which would absorb more and more new cars, there was the growth of the motoring habit to take into consideration and also the increase in population. Mr. Cousins did not deny, however, that the motor business would be subject to cyclical changes. "We will go on as we have done in the past; there will be peak years and bad years," he said.