Nonluxury SUVs drive isle vehicle sales

Nonluxury SUVs continue to dominate the road in Hawaii.

With that segment of the light-trucks category driving sales, Hawaii car and light-truck registrations bounced back from a flat second quarter to rev up 5 percent in the July-September period, according to a report due out today by Hawaii Auto Outlook.

New-vehicle registrations are now forecast to increase this year 3.9 percent to 60,750 from 58,485 in 2016 as they remain on track to rise for the seventh straight year. The full-year projection by Hawaii Auto Outlook, which produces the report for the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association, was revised upward from a 2.2 percent increase that was forecast at midyear.

Nonluxury SUVs, such as the Ford Explorer, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Kia Sorento and Toyota Highlander, accounted for 31 percent of the new-vehicle registrations in the state at the end of the third quarter. That is up from 21 percent during the same period in 2012.

HADA Executive Director Dave Rolf said that as long as gasoline prices remain stable around the $3 level, consumers likely will opt for SUVs over cars.

“The SUV has something they call attributes that sedans don’t offer,” Rolf said. “One of the first things is the additional cabin room that it offers for storage and passengers. It also has a command driving position, which is higher than a sedan and allows the driver to see the road better. And because gasoline prices have remained so steady in that $3 range, it just becomes something that people would like to have.”

Rolf said SUVs can accommodate the active lifestyles that are prevalent in Hawaii.

“They’re great for going to the beach, for hauling a kayak or surfboard, and they’re just loaded with all sorts of features that allow the seats to fold down and larger cargo to be carried inside the vehicle almost like a covered truck,” he said.

Overall, new-vehicle registrations rose last quarter to 15,969 from 15,207 in the year-­earlier period. Hybrid and electric vehicle registrations accounted for 6.1 percent of the total.

For the first nine months, new-vehicle registrations increased 4.9 percent to 45,725 from 43,580 during the same time a year ago.

The light-trucks category, which besides SUVs includes vans and pickups, has remained popular with a 63.7 percent market share through the first nine months compared with 36.3 percent for cars. There were 29,122 new-vehicle registrations for light trucks through September, up 10.1 percent from 26,445 in the year-earlier period. Car registrations fell 3.1 percent to 16,603 from 17,135.

“Over the past year the Toyota Tacoma remains Hawaii’s best-selling vehicle, and we have also seen increased interest in our other SUV and truck models like the RAV4, 4Runner and Highlander,” said Glenn Inouye, senior vice president of Toyota Hawaii. “In response to this consumer shift away from passenger cars, Toyota recently launched the C-HR, its first entrant in the growing entry SUV segment.”

The largest nine-month increase in new-vehicle registrations statewide came on Kauai where they jumped 15.7 percent. Oahu registrations rose 6.3 percent, Hawaii island registrations edged up 2.3 percent and Maui registrations fell 3.4 percent.

New-vehicle registrations are a proxy for auto sales, but the two don’t always align because a vehicle buyer can make a purchase one month and register it in another month.

Toyota remained the market-share leader overall in Hawaii through the first nine months at 26.4 percent — nearly double the U.S. market’s 13.6 percent share. Honda was second in Hawaii at 15.6 percent with Nissan third at 10 percent.