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Explore: The cars of Auckland, New Zealand
Toyota Corolla Fielder
Last week I was lucky enough to visit Auckland in New Zealand. The car landscape is fascinating here, and it is well worth an Explore update. New Zealandβs particularity is that, unlike neighbour Australia, it allows the mass importation of used cars, mainly cheap Japanese models. Japanese car buyers are traditionally reluctant to purchase used cars as they tend to place high value on being the βfirst ownerβ, and view second hand objects as undesirable. On top of this, Japanβs vehicle inspection system (the shaken) requires expensive mandatory roadworthy checks every two years, with costs rising as the car ages β this makes older cars increasingly costly to maintain.
Toyota Aqua
As a result, there is a high amount of used cars in Japan that cannot find a buyer locally, pushing the country to flood export markets. This is something I already observed during myΒ Trans-Siberian exploration in 2013, starting in Yekaterinburg and getting more and more intense as we went further East and closer to Japan. It was also the case in Mongolia with lots of used Toyota Priuses.
Toyota Corolla Fielder
New Zealand, or at least in its biggest city Auckland, is probably among the most extreme situations, with the majority of vehicles on the streets being used Japanese imports. These used imports were down -14.2% year-on-year in 2025 to 89,188 units, including 85,031 passenger cars (-13.2%) and 4,157 commercial vehicles (-31.9%). But the market seems to have bottomed out: in April 2026 (latest results available), used imports sales are up 5.3% year-on-year to 7,110 including 6,786 passenger cars (+5.4%) and 324 commercial vehicles (+3.5%). For comparison, the New Zealand new car market stood at 138,073 (+7.2%) over the Full Year 2025 and 9,863 (+11.6%) last April.
Toyota Prius
Toyota overwhelmingly dominates the used passenger car market with a 37.5% share in 2025 and 37.2% in April 2026. Nissan follows at 14% share last year and 13.9% last month, with Mazda grabbing the third spot with 13.8% share last year and 11% last month. Honda (9% and 9.3%) and Subaru (8.6% and 8.7%) complete a Top 5 unsurprisingly 100% Japanese.
Honda AirwaveNissan Note (right)Toyota bBToyota Sienta
Now onto observations about the car landscape in Auckland. One good thing is that what I saw is reflected into the official models data that weβll cover further down. The most frequent used Japanese import (and most frequent car overall in the streets) is the Toyota Aqua. Briefly marketed as new as the Toyota Prius C, it was not met with a warm welcome both in New Zealand and Australia. Called Aqua in Japan, it was named by BSCB as the most successful new launch in the country in at least 20 years thanks to 266,567 sales in 2012 and topped the overall ranking over the Full Years 2013 and 2015. The Aqua sold almost 1 million units in Japan over its first four years. Thatβs a lot of available used versions thereafter.
Toyota Wish XToyota Will VSToyota SAIToyota Ist
The second most frequent used Japanese import in Auckland is the Toyota Prius, also used as taxi. This highlights the preference of New Zealand car buyers for hybrid vehicles. Third in line is the Toyota Corolla, but more precisely the Corolla Fielder station wagon. This order is reflected in the official 2025 used models ranking: the Aqua is by far #1 with 10.6% share ahead of the Prius at 7.2% and Corolla at 5.5%. Strikingly, the 19 best-selling used imports in New Zealand in 2025 are Japanese. In April 2026, the podium is unchanged, while the Nissan Note (+22.9%) and Toyota C-HR (+4.7%) round out the Top 5. This trip was the opportunity to (re) discover some obscure Japanese nameplates such as the Toyota Will VS, Ist, Sai and bB as pictured above. The detail of the 20 best-selling used brands and models is in the data section of this article below.
Toyota RAV4
As for new cars, in 2025 the Toyota RAV4 spectacularly ended 10 years of Ford Ranger dominance and this can be verified in the Auckland recent cars landscape, with the RAV4 by far the most frequent. Note although that the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux, respectively #2 and #3 in 2025, would be underrepresented in a city landscape. I however still saw two new generation Hilux in the few days I spent there.
BYD Atto 3GWM Haval JolionMG 4 and Leapmotor C10Tesla Model 3
Chinese manufacturers are present (GWM ranked #5 in April), but potentially not as prominent as in Australia. BYD models are well implanted but the biggest surprise was Leapmotor. The taxi from the airport to the CBD was one, and the driver very impressed by its 447 km range. Interestingly, he chose it over a Tesla Model Y for its sharper pricing and equivalent performance. Talking of which, Tesla is also there of course, but nowhere near as frequent as in Australia.
Full Year 2025 and April 2026 Top 20 used imported brands and models below.
New Zealand Full Year 2025 β used imported passenger car brands:
| Pos | Brand | 2025 | % | /25 | 2024 | % | Pos |
| 1 | Toyota | 31,851 | 37.5% | β 11.5% | 35,983 | 36.7% | 1 |
| 2 | Nissan | 11,894 | 14.0% | β 11.2% | 13,388 | 13.7% | 2 |
| 3 | Mazda | 11,710 | 13.8% | β 10.7% | 13,115 | 13.4% | 3 |
| 4 | Honda | 7,617 | 9.0% | β 9.0% | 8,367 | 8.5% | 5 |
| 5 | Subaru | 7,282 | 8.6% | β 15.4% | 8,610 | 8.8% | 4 |
| 6 | BMW | 3,008 | 3.5% | + 0.6% | 2,989 | 3.1% | 6 |
| 7 | Suzuki | 2,142 | 2.5% | β 21.1% | 2,714 | 2.8% | 7 |
| 8 | Mercedes | 1,725 | 2.0% | β 5.9% | 1,834 | 1.9% | 11 |
| 9 | Audi | 1,499 | 1.8% | β 15.8% | 1,781 | 1.8% | 12 |
| 10 | Mitsubishi | 1,451 | 1.7% | β 38.6% | 2,364 | 2.4% | 8 |
| 11 | Lexus | 1,350 | 1.6% | β 28.4% | 1,885 | 1.9% | 9 |
| 12 | Volkswagen | 993 | 1.2% | β 47.0% | 1,872 | 1.9% | 10 |
| 13 | Land Rover | 464 | 0.5% | β 3.5% | 481 | 0.5% | 13 |
| 14 | FordΒ | 247 | 0.3% | β 31.8% | 362 | 0.4% | 14 |
| 15 | Tesla | 205 | 0.2% | + 58.9% | 129 | 0.1% | 20 |
| 16 | Jaguar | 197 | 0.2% | β 8.8% | 216 | 0.2% | 15 |
| 17 | Volvo | 185 | 0.2% | + 12.1% | 165 | 0.2% | 17 |
| 18 | Mini | 181 | 0.2% | + 44.8% | 125 | 0.1% | 21 |
| 19 | Jeep | 127 | 0.1% | β 40.9% | 215 | 0.2% | 16 |
| 20 | Porsche | 127 | 0.1% | β 18.1% | 155 | 0.2% | 19 |
New Zealand April 2026 β used imported passenger car brands:
| Pos | Brand | Apr-26 | % | /25 |
| 1 | Toyota | 2,527 | 37.2% | + 5.4% |
| 2 | Nissan | 945 | 13.9% | + 6.2% |
| 3 | Mazda | 745 | 11.0% | β 14.5% |
| 4 | Honda | 634 | 9.3% | + 12.2% |
| 5 | Subaru | 588 | 8.7% | β 0.5% |
| 6 | BMW | 222 | 3.3% | β 9.4% |
| 7 | Lexus | 176 | 2.6% | + 102.3% |
| 8 | Mercedes | 155 | 2.3% | + 26.0% |
| 9 | Suzuki | 150 | 2.2% | β 13.8% |
| 10 | Audi | 137 | 2.0% | + 28.0% |
| 11 | Mitsubishi | 116 | 1.7% | + 2.7% |
| 12 | Tesla | 57 | 0.8% | + 235.3% |
| 13 | Volkswagen | 56 | 0.8% | β 29.1% |
| 14 | Land Rover | 44 | 0.6% | + 7.3% |
| 15 | FordΒ | 31 | 0.5% | + 34.8% |
| 16 | Mini | 28 | 0.4% | + 133.3% |
| 17 | BYD | 24 | 0.4% | + 1100.0% |
| 18 | Jaguar | 23 | 0.3% | + 283.3% |
| 19 | Volvo | 21 | 0.3% | + 50.0% |
| 20 | Jeep | 20 | 0.3% | + 185.7% |
New Zealand Full Year 2025 β used imported passenger car models:
| Pos | Model | 2026 | % | /25 | 2025 | % | Pos |
| 1 | Toyota Aqua | 9,010 | 10.6% | β 7.5% | 9,740 | 9.9% | 1 |
| 2 | Toyota Prius | 6,122 | 7.2% | β 16.4% | 7,325 | 7.5% | 2 |
| 3 | Toyota Corolla | 4,664 | 5.5% | + 4.3% | 4,473 | 4.6% | 3 |
| 4 | Nissan Note | 3,605 | 4.2% | + 6.8% | 3,374 | 3.4% | 5 |
| 5 | Mazda Axela | 3,340 | 3.9% | β 14.3% | 3,898 | 4.0% | 4 |
| 6 | Honda Fit | 3,202 | 3.8% | + 2.4% | 3,128 | 3.2% | 8 |
| 7 | Toyota C-HR | 2,790 | 3.3% | β 2.2% | 2,852 | 2.9% | 10 |
| 8 | Subaru Impreza | 2,677 | 3.1% | β 17.3% | 3,236 | 3.3% | 6 |
| 9 | Nissan X-Trail | 2,343 | 2.8% | β 26.0% | 3,167 | 3.2% | 7 |
| 10 | Mazda Demio | 2,250 | 2.6% | β 25.2% | 3,010 | 3.1% | 9 |
| 11 | Mazda CX-5 | 2,143 | 2.5% | β 8.0% | 2,330 | 2.4% | 12 |
| 12 | Subaru XV | 2,052 | 2.4% | β 6.2% | 2,187 | 2.2% | 13 |
| 13 | Nissan Serena | 1,987 | 2.3% | β 27.0% | 2,723 | 2.8% | 11 |
| 14 | Honda Vezel | 1,562 | 1.8% | + 0.5% | 1,555 | 1.6% | 15 |
| 15 | Suzuki Swift | 1,517 | 1.8% | β 22.5% | 1,958 | 2.0% | 14 |
| 16 | Nissan Leaf | 1,383 | 1.6% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 17 | Toyota Vellfire | 1,004 | 1.2% | β 14.1% | 1,169 | 1.2% | 20 |
| 18 | Mitsubishi Outlander | 923 | 1.1% | β 35.7% | 1,435 | 1.5% | 16 |
| 19 | Toyota Vitz | 830 | 1.0% | β 35.9% | 1,295 | 1.3% | 17 |
| 20 | BMW 3 Series | 826 | 1.0% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
New Zealand April 2026 β used passenger car models:
| Pos | Model | Apr-26 | % | /25 |
| 1 | Toyota Aqua | 664 | 9.8% | β 2.2% |
| 2 | Toyota Prius | 437 | 6.4% | β 4.8% |
| 3 | Toyota Corolla | 394 | 5.8% | + 6.5% |
| 4 | Nissan Note | 333 | 4.9% | + 22.9% |
| 5 | Toyota C-HR | 225 | 3.3% | + 4.7% |
| 6 | Honda Fit | 216 | 3.2% | β 3.1% |
| 7 | Subaru Impreza | 195 | 2.9% | β 7.1% |
| 8 | Mazda Axela | 178 | 2.6% | β 34.3% |
| 9 | Mazda Demio | 170 | 2.5% | + 9.0% |
| 10 | Nissan Serena | 166 | 2.4% | + 15.3% |
| 11 | Nissan X-Trail | 160 | 2.4% | β 9.1% |
| 12 | Subaru XV | 160 | 2.4% | β 13.5% |
| 13 | Honda Vezel | 149 | 2.2% | + 21.1% |
| 14 | Mazda CX-5 | 119 | 1.8% | β 24.7% |
| 15 | Suzuki Swift | 112 | 1.7% | β 3.4% |
| 16 | Toyota Vellfire | 93 | 1.4% | n/a |
| 17 | Mitsubishi Outlander | 84 | 1.2% | + 25.4% |
| 18 | Toyota Yaris | 84 | 1.2% | n/a |
| 19 | Nissan Leaf | 80 | 1.2% | β 25.2% |
| 20 | Subaru Levorg | 69 | 1.0% | n/a |
Source: MIA
