Hawaii vehicle registrations were up 5.5 percent in the second quarter of the year from the same period in 2013, quite a letdown from the 20.5 percent year-over-year increase in the first quarter of 2014.

That is not to say demand has dropped, say Hawaii car dealers.

"Sometimes we have the problem of getting inventory, because of the lag time arriving from the mainland," said Stan Masamitsu, president of Tony Group, which sells Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen vehicles.

While every manufacturer and distributor operates a little differently, most formulas used to decide "who gets what car and how many" are determined by "how quickly we turn the inventory around. People who can turn inventory faster get more of the production," he said, such as dealers on the mainland.

Hawaii dealers often have to remind their contacts about how much longer it takes for vehicles to get from there to here, that the inventory isn’t sitting on Hawaii car lots that much longer, but rather, the inventory has several days’ transit before it even reaches isle lots.

"So we have to kind of wave our hands and raise our voices," he said.

Masamitsu also serves as the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association representative to the National Automobile Dealers Association board of directors, as well as serving on the local board.

Some 13,704 vehicles were registered statewide in the second quarter, up from 12,995 in the same period last year but 72.2 percent more than the 7,958 registered in the second quarter of 2010 as the industry struggled to recover from the recession.

On a year-to-date basis through June, Kauai saw the highest percentage gain in vehicle registrations, at 26.2 percent.

Maui was next, at 16.4 percent, Hawaii was next at 15.6 percent, while Oahu saw a 10.5 percent year-to-date gain.

The market is expected to increase by 9.5 percent for the year, to an estimated 53,400 registrations. Next year’s sales are projected be less than half of that, at 4 percent.

With the construction sector of Hawaii’s economy on the rise, sales of light trucks saw a second consecutive quarter of having greater market share than passenger cars, or 51.6 percent to cars’ 48.4 percent.

Light trucks are traditionally more popular on neighbor islands than on Oahu, noted Rick Ching, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Servco Pacific Inc.

It should be noted, however, that pickup trucks are not the only vehicles so classified.

Small sport utility vehicles, or crossover utility vehicles, also are included in the light-truck category, Ching said.

Models include the Toyota Rav 4, 4Runner and Highlander and the Hyundai Santa Fe, for instance.

Toyota remains the market leader with 27.3 percent of the market in the second quarter, followed by Honda and Nissan, and sales of Japanese nameplates overall saw a 15 percent year-to-date increase over a year ago.

It could be due to a number of factors, said Ching. "There are a lot of incentives in the market, so for the consumer it’s a great time to consider purchasing, now with financing and cash incentives. You just have to flip through the paper and you can see the different incentives there are. The manufacturers are being fairly aggressive."

Korean brands such as Hyundai and Kia also saw 6.7 percent growth, year-over-year, which Masamitsu attributes to "better acceptance for Korean products in the marketplace," citing the popularity of Samsung and LG electronics as examples.

The automotive brands have proved they have staying power, and "the public sees them more as another Asian brand, as opposed to making a big separation between Japanese and Korean," Masamitsu said.

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