Cars Drive Mexico LV Sales to July Peak

Thanks to record car sales, Mexico’s new light-vehicle market reached a July benchmark of 96,066 units, or 3,558 on each of 27 selling days. That was a 6.9% gain on prior year’s then-record 86,568 deliveries, a 26-day average of 3,330 vehicles.

The new July sales peak was attained thanks to the record 64,593 new cars sold during month, 11.7% more than the 55,699 sold in like 2013.

With less disposable income than their neighbors to the north, Mexican consumers continued to favor cars over light trucks by a wide margin, with cars accounting for 67.2% of July LV sales, up from 64.3% a year earlier and a 5-year average of 63.6%.

Sales of light trucks were off 1.8% to 31,473 from 30,877 vehicles in July 2013 and down 4.5% from June’s 29,304 units.

Compared with the record 36,593 deliveries posted in July 2008, accounting for 43.6% of the LV market, July light-truck sales ranked only fifth-best for the month historically, with a market share of just 32.8%.

Sales in the first seven months of 2014 were up 3.5%, to 803,465 from 872,969 units a year ago, keeping the industry on track to best the 1,061,728 LVs sold in 2013, barring an economic downturn later in the year, by at least 4%-5%.

Nissan, Mexico’s single best-selling brand, posted a 4.0% LV sales increase, to 225,511 in January-July from 216,892 in like-2013. Second-place Volkswagen rose 6.4%, to 152,472 units from 143,472, while No.3 Chevrolet posted a 2.5% increase, to 164,907 vehicles from 160,816.

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