WILLING TON: Used car sales in March plunged 18% on a year ago, as stink bug-infested ships were turned away from New Zealand shores for biosecurity reasons.
New and used car sales dropped 6.6% in February and 4.4% in MarchInfometrics economist Hilary Parker said stricter controls for dealing with car shipments from Japan was likely to continue to slow the supply chain and prompt further weakness in sales.
“The monthly decline was entirely due to fewer registrations of used imports, with stink bugs holding up car shipments from Japan,” Ms Parker said in a statement.
Total sales were 20,891 new and used cars for March, a decline of almost 12% on a year ago. Brand new sales (9050) were down 2% and imported used car cars down 18.2%, at 11,841 vehicles.
