Mexico LV Sales Set July Record

Thanks to resurgent light-truck sales, Mexico’s light-vehicle market resumed a record pace in July, with deliveries totaling 86,579 units, or 3,330 on each of 26 selling days.

The performance surpassed by 5.9% the month’s prior peak of 84,892 units posted in July 2008, when LV sales averaged 3,144 on each of 27 selling days.

While that didn’t quite match this year’s May record of 87,347 units, it bested June’s 83,662 units by 3.5%. It also topped by 9.3% year-ago results totaling 76,179 LVs, or 2,821 on each of 27 selling days.

Light-truck sales of 55,445 in July were up 1.7% from the prior month and 8.1% from the 49,314 units posted a year ago. That put the mix at 64%/-36% trucks to cars, reversing the trend in the market’s former July peak five years ago, when cars accounted for 56% of volume.

Among the Detroit Three, only Chrysler, down 13.3% and 25.2%, respectively, failed to match either its prior-month or prior-year performances.

Ford posted the largest month-over-month July gain, with a 36.6% increase in deliveries from June and a 20.1% rise from year-ago. General Motors led with a 32.7% increase from July 2012, but beat its June tally by just 8.4%.

Asian-brand sales rose 1.5% against June and 7.3% compared with year-ago, while European makes trailed off a bit in July, falling 1.6% behind June’s pace but beating their prior-year results by 5.8%.

Despite trailing June’s 7,817 units, the Volkswagen Jetta again reigned supreme with July volume of 7,640 units, up 28.7% from year-ago. However, the Honda CR-V, with July sales of 2,282, stole top-honors in the light-truck field from the traditional segment leaders, Nissan’s Pickup and Chassis-Cab models, sales of which totaled 2,009 and 2,001, respectively.

[email protected]