Jonathan Allen from Car Connexxion

In the past month we have been busy redeveloping the Cranston Cars Site beside the Fire station while also keeping sales ticking over at the old site.

I'm sitting here looking out on this amazing huge new site thinking how positive a sign it is for all in the industry!

We are not the only ones opening new yards this month, Stadium Cars, who originate from Christchurch are currently developing the old Hyundai dealership on Cameron Rd.

So, when all the press in the past few years has been regarding closing yards it is awesome to see some positive news for once.

As a business we have had the best six months since 2008 and reports around the town from other dealerships is largely that sales are up and buyers are more positive.

As far as import regulations go, there was a lot of press at the start of the year regarding the 2012 emission rule change.

Most of us were worried about the ability to buy good affordable second hand cars out of Japan, 8 months down the track and we are more excited than worried!

We have found that buying has been generally very good. We are managing to buy late model cars with decent low kms and prices are largely the same as last year.