After posting a November record, Mexico new light-vehicle sales are poised for at least a second-place finish in 2014, if not a new all-time high surpassing the 1,132,783 LVs sold in 2006.
Whether a new record is achieved depends largely on consumers maintaining in December the momentum that has been building in the fourth quarter. If enough buyers flock to showrooms this month to boost sales substantially from prior-year’s 119,189 units, a new all-time high is in the bag.
Through November, LV deliveries totaled 1,000,736 units, up from 942,539 in like-2013, a 6.2% increase.
Despite having just 25 selling days compared with year-ago’s 26, Mexican dealers pumped a record 111,485 new LVs out the doors in November, besting by 15.6% the year-old benchmark of 107,907 units.
Much of that was due to better credit availability this year along with stronger consumer confidence, the same factors that prompted record LV sales in October. A year ago, consumers were more pessimistic with the government poised to raise taxes to address budget concerns in early 2014.
Ironically, neither the car nor light-truck segments reached new benchmarks in November, although cars trailed the record 71,798 units sold in 2000 by just 0.9%.
Light-truck sales ran fourth-best for November, trailing the record 44,552 units sold in 2013 by 10.5%.
Detroit Three LV sales rose 8.5% in November compared with the prior year, led by Ford’s 16.4% gain.
Asians makes posted a 26.5% year-on-year increase to 51,631 units with market-leader Nissan/Infiniti up 23.3%
Sales of European makes increased by 6.2%, with high-volume Volkswagen/Audi off 3.8% to 17,942 vehicles from 18,660, despite Audi’s 3.6% rise.
