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Auto sales
speed ahead 20%

Foreign truck purchases paved
the way in the quarter

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By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

Statewide retail sales of new automobiles continued to rise in the third quarter, up nearly 20 percent from the same period last year, with foreign trucks leading the pack at more than 51 percent growth.

Buyers registered a total of 14,036 new trucks and cars from July through September, up from 11,722 during the same time last year, according to a report from the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.

Quarterly registrations have not totaled more than 14,000 since 1990, said Eric Miyasaki, chief executive of Nissan Motor Corp. in Hawaii.

"After 10 years of struggle, it's really a light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

Nissan gathers the data for the dealers' association from county motor vehicle registrations, which reflect sales, but can lag actual transactions by up to two months. The figures do not include fleet sales to rental cars agencies.

Year-to-date retail sales registrations total 40,333, more than 7,000 vehicles over the year-earlier 33,003 -- a 22 percent increase.

Year-end figures are on target to exceed 50,000, a milestone also not seen for the past 10 years, Miyasaki said.

In the recent quarter, foreign trucks scored the highest increase in sales, reaching 1,433 from 949 last year. Nissan's own truck registrations soared 90 percent, with sports-utility vehicles like the Xterra selling exceptionally well, Miyasaki said.

Schuman Carriage Motors Inc. said it recorded similar growth, with all domestic car and truck sales jumping 25 percent, and its foreign model, Subaru, rising 20 percent. "We're having a good quarter. We just hope it continues," said Mark Oshio, president of Schuman Carriage.

Both Oshio and Miyasaki warn sales could slow next quarter, however.

Much of this year's growth comes from the release of demand built up by the state's recent recession, which hurt automobile sales as late as 1998, Oshio said. Renewed confidence in the economy unleashed that demand last year, and sales should flatten out again soon.

This particular quarter also saw a boost in finance incentives for domestic vehicles, which were in oversupply and had to be sold, Miyasaki said.

Taking a broader look, the shakiness of the U.S. stock market and violence in the Middle East could hurt Hawaii's economic recovery by stunting the turnaround in the state's largest industry, tourism. The 1991 Persian Gulf War helped cut visitors to the islands by several hundred thousand people between 1990 and 1993, Miyasaki noted. Any sign of a repeat isn't good news, he said. Still, with this year's strong figures, "we are enthused," Miyasaki said.