No prizes for guessing the top sellers in August.

TOYOTA’S RAV4 cleaned out the opposition in new passenger vehicle sales during August, selling at more than double the rate of anything else.

And the Ford Ranger ute almost achieved the same in the commercial market, taking a massive 27 per cent market share.

But overall, new vehicle registrations in August were once again adversely affected by the Covid-19 restrictions, especially the alert level 3 in Auckland, reports the Motor Industry Association.

August registrations came in at 15.8 percent below August last year, with 10,610 new vehicles registered, which was down 1997 units on the same month in 2019.

“Year to date the market is down 23.6 percent in a year that remains heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said MIA chief executive David Crawford.

The shining lights among the depressed level of sales were the Ranger and RAV4.

Ranger achieved 964 registrations, way ahead of the Toyota Hilux whose 524 registrations were no doubt affected by the fact the current model was in runout prior to launch of a new model this month.

The massive success of Ranger allowed Ford to retain the market lead in the commercial sector with a 30 per cent share, followed by Toyota on 19 per cent and Mitsubishi on 11 per cent.

The RAV4, with its hybrid models at the forefront, achieved 638 registrations to dominate the passenger and SUV segment – in second place was the Kia Sportage with 313 sales, followed by its smaller brother the Seltos with 243 registrations.

No surprises then that Toyota was market leader for passenger and SUV registrations with a 19 per cent share, followed by Kia on 10 per cent and Suzuki on 8 per cent.

Overall the top segments for August were once again dominated by SUVs. Top spot went to medium SUVs with a 22 per cent share, followed by 4x4 utes with 18 per cent, and then compact SUVs also with 18 per cent.

Top 15 most popular vehicles in August

Ford Ranger                  964 sales
Toyota RAV4                638
Toyota Hilux                 524
Mitsubishi Triton          376
Kia Sportage                 313
Kia Seltos                     243
Suzuki Swift                 220
Toyota C-HR                 200
Mazda BT-50                199
Mazda CX-5                  197
Toyota Corolla              194
Holden Colorado          193
Hyundai Tucson            188
Toyota Yaris                 183
Mitsubishi Outlander   159