Last month, 1984 used cars were imported from Japan and an executive member of the Imported Motor Vehicle Dealers Association (IMVDA), Lloyd Wilson, from Dunedin, expected that figure to drop even lower.
He said New Zealand new cars had already risen in price by up to $4000 and he expected the shortage of imported vehicles would add a further $2000 to $3000 to the price.
Mr Wilson said the price New Zealand car buyers would have to pay had almost doubled since last August, when the exchange rate between Japan and New Zealand was 80 to $NZ1.
This week it was 47, which made the vehicles uneconomical to buy.
An over-supply of vehicles had for many years made it a buyer's market but Mr Wilson said the shortage of stock would transform it to a seller's market.
He expected demand and the price of late model, low mileage, quality vehicles to increase.
Another factor for the slump in imported used cars was new vehicle-emission standards which reduced the market available to buyers.
Mr Wilson said the change in regulations meant buyers were having to look at later model cars, around 2002, which put them in competition with Japanese used car buyers.
"Combined with the yen, the price is making it impossible to buy."
A further reduction in permitted vehicle emissions would be imposed in the next few years, which would reduce even further potential vehicle purchases.
Veteran Dunedin car dealer Neil Cottle, a director of Auto Court, said he has never seen Japanese used imports fall below 2000 a month since the industry started in about 1988, but the exchange rate meant it was uneconomic to buy Japanese cars, because New Zealand buyers would not entertain such a rise in price.
"It has created an absolute shortage," he said.
The result was being felt locally, with car sale yards closing, redundancies and yards with few cars for sale.
He could see no reason for the trend to change in the short term.
Eight months ago, there was a shortage of car-carrying ships, Mr Cottle said.
Now, many were tied up because there was no cargo to carry.
Figures provided by Land Transport NZ reveal used imports from all countries peaked in the past two years at 11,069 in July 2007 and 11,319 the following month, before steadily declining to 5923 in November 2008.
Last December, there was a slight recovery to 6323.
