WELLINGTON, May 3 -- Strong immigration helped to drive record new car sales in New Zealand last month, the Motor Industry Association (MIA) said Tuesday.

New car sales were the highest for an April month since 1982, rising 7 percent year on year to 9,939, MIA chief executive officer David Crawford said in a statement.

Health regional economies in the two biggest cities of Auckland and Christchurch, combined with continued strong net immigration and competitive pricing were factors in new car sales.

"There were 6,789 passenger vehicle registrations and 3,150 commercial vehicle registrations, which were once again the highest month of April on record for commercial vehicle registrations," said Crawford.

"Since January 2012, when comparing growth for the same month a year earlier the passenger sector has seen growth in 50 out of 52 months and for the commercial sector it has been 46 out of 52 months."

Toyota was the overall market leader in April with 15 percent of the market, followed by Ford on 13 percent and Holden on 8 percent.