Second Best Year for Mexico LV Sales

With one less selling day this year than last, dealers in Mexico failed to hit the record numbers set last December, selling an average 6,098 light vehicles on each of this year’s 26 days compared with 7,122 last year. Dealers delivered 1,528,593 light vehicles for the year, a second best following the record set last year when sales totaled 1,601,826.

The shortage came from the 7.7% drop in car sales for the year, totaling only 965,339 deliveries compared with last year’s 1,045,412 record. December marked the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year losses, plummeting 16.3% to 97,362. Most automakers followed the trend, with car sales down in December and for the year. Kia, however, posted an 81.1% gain in December and 79.8% increase for the year, with booming sales of the domestically built Rio. The Nissan Versa remained the top-selling car for the year, up 2.8% to 93,041 units sold in 2017.

Although down 1.6% in December, light-truck sales wrapped a banner year in 2017 at 563,254 units, 1.2% ahead of the prior benchmark of 556,414 set a year earlier. Nissan, the No.1 light-truck seller holding a 24.3% market share, came in 4.2% below last December but wrapped up the year 1.5% ahead with 138,468 deliveries. Runner-up Honda outperformed last December with a 27.7% gain, but accounted for only 10.5% market share.

Top-volume nameplates in 2017 included the Nissan Frontier, up 17.2% for the year, followed by the Honda CR-V (up 44.9%), Nissan X-Trail (down 15.9%), Nissan Kicks (up 326.3%) and Kia Sportage (up 8.0%).

Nissan remained Mexico’s best-selling LV automaker despite falling 9.1% short for the year selling 366,544 units. Holding second place, General Motors ended the year 16.2% behind 2017 with 258,523 deliveries. Third-place Volkswagen dropped 5.7% to 217,385, while fourth-place Honda was able to post a small gain, just 0.2% ahead of last year with 90,362 deliveries.

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