Zero interest,
rebates boost state
auto sales 14.8%
Zero percent interest and fat manufacturers' rebates continue to make Hawaii a hot market for new cars, and a strongly recovering local economy should keep car sales high for the next several years, a new study says.
Through the first nine months of 2003, registrations of new cars and light trucks totaled 47,553, a 14.8 percent increase from 41,430 for the first nine months of 2002, according to a study prepared for the Hawaii Automobile Dealers' Association.
Light trucks were clearly gaining over family cars, making 56.5 percent of total light-vehicle sales. Toyota continued to be the best seller with 21.6 percent of the statewide car market for the nine months, followed by Honda with 14.4 percent, Nissan 9.4 percent, Mazda 5.7 percent and Volkswagen 5.3 percent.
Toyota beat out the others in the light-truck market too, scoring 22.9 percent of the island market for the nine months, followed by Ford with 16.3 percent, Honda 9.9 percent, Nissan 10 percent and Chevrolet 9.7 percent.
Manufacturers' backing has been the big force behind the sales boom but nobody knows how long that will last, said Joe Nicolai, head of JN Automotive Group.
"We've had a good year. I've been in this business for going on 45 years and I've never seen in my career where the manufacturers have rebated and subsidized the sales to where they have," Nicolai said.
"A private first class three years ago could not qualify to buy a car. Today, with a $5,000 rebate that he can use as a down payment and zero percent interest, he can qualify," Nicolai said.
Whether such buyers can keep making the payments down the line remains to be seen, and nobody knows how long the manufacturers might keep providing incentives, but for now, those sales show as new registrations, Nicolai said.
David Rolf, executive director of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers' Association, said the growth in new-car sales this year has been extraordinary and Hawaii continues its hot sale performance while the rest of the country is "down a tick."
"We will have a sustained period of growth in the islands," Rolf said. He cautioned that Auto Outlook Inc., the national firm retained by HADA to do the quarterly surveys, has often been wrong in its predictions. But the errors in the past have tended to be on the down side, with actual performance beating the forecasts, he said.
This time, full-year Hawaii car and light-truck sales are expected to pass 60,000 units, up nearly 13 percent from 53,314 in all of 2002, and 2004 sales are expected to rise another 2.5 percent to 61,589, the latest forecast said.
Hawaii's economy is expected to remain strong and new vehicles will continue to be affordable, the survey firm predicted.
