NZ new car registrations up in October - NZTA

WELLINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - New Zealand new car registrations rose 1.6 percent to 5,680 in October on the the previous month, but were still 24 percent lower than a year earlier, the New Zealand Transport Agency said on Thursday.

Used car registrations -- generally imported used cars -- totalled 6,044 last month, up 2.1 percent from September but 8.6 percent down on a year ago, the government agency said in a statement.

New commercial vehicle registrations during the month were 1,159 down 15.5 percent from a month earlier, and down 34.4 percent on October 2008.

The top selling make in September was Toyota (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) with 1,775 new cars, followed by Holden GM.N with 660 and Ford (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) with 645.