More Sales Records Fall in Mexico in March

Car dealers in Mexico saw no letup in the flow of buyers through their doors in March as they retailed a record 136,755 new light vehicles.

That was up 17.2% from the month’s prior record of 116,724 chalked up a year earlier, and bested by 2.7% from the record-February tally of 117,819.

There were 26 selling days in March and year-ago; February had 23.

Sales of both cars and light trucks reached new highs for March, with car deliveries of 88,028, up 17.1% from the month’s prior record of 75,137 units in like-2016.

Light trucks boasted a 17.2% rise, to 48,727 vehicles from 41,587 the prior year and beat the old March record of 41,835, set in 2007, by 16.5%.

The record-March performance brought the first quarter to a close with record LV sales for the period of 377,608 units, 8.8% higher than the 346,960 sold in first-quarter 2016.

Industry leader Nissan/Infiniti posted a 6.6% year-over-year gain in the first quarter with second-place General Motors up 6.0%.

Third-place Volkswagen/Audi edged ahead of its prior-year tally by just 0.8% due in part to a modest decline in Audi deliveries. VW, alone, was up 2.5%.

In fourth place, Toyota sales rose 14.6% for the quarter, while fifth-place Honda/Acura boasted a 34.3% hike, the third-highest percentage gain in the market behind new-comer Kia’s 97.3% increase and low-volume Daimler’s 47.1% gain.

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