Suzuki Still Setting The Pace

Posted: Fri 08 Mar 2002

SUZUKI has started the year the way it ended 2001 ? dominating the motorcycle market in New Zealand.

Registration figures released by the Land Transport Safety Authority show that in January, Suzuki was once again the clear market leader, with 111 new registrations from a total of 366.

That gave Suzuki just over 30 per cent of new motorcycle registrations in the first month of 2002 ? well clear of traditional rival Honda, which dropped to Number Four ranking with just 6.55 per cent of new registrations.

Taking over the Number Two slot was Harley-Davidson, with 12.8 per cent of new registrations for the month, while Yamaha also edged past Honda to take Number Three place with 7.65 per cent of the new bike market.

While the Suzuki GSF1200 Bandit and GSX1200 retro bike continued to find favour with big bike buyers, Suzuki also scored strongly with its GSX-R range of sports bikes, which have also been dominating New Zealand racing this summer.

Also scoring well for Suzuki was the SV650 ? the light weight, nimble handling, smooth running V-twin continuing to win converts.

In addition to these models continuing to attract strong buyer interest, it was at the entry level that Suzuki did best, with the nippy single cylinder FXR150 DOHC four-stroke grabbing the Number One spot for the month, chased hard by the SJ50 scooter, which was Suzuki\'s second highest selling model in January.

While many of these were sold to traffic clogged Auckland, they also sold well in Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, indicating that their frugal fuel use and ease of parking are features that are finding favour right around the country.

New Motorcycle Registrations for January 2002:

1.Suzuki11130.3 per cent
2.Harley-Davidson4712.8
3.Yamaha287.65
4.Honda246.55
5.Triumph205.46
6.Piaggio195.19
7.PGO154.09
8.BMW92.45
9.Kawasaki92.45
10.Ducati61.63