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Buoyed by rising economic activity, Mexican consumers appeared to have overcome their apprehension related to the country’s March interest-rate boost and with the help of some automaker incentives drove a record number of light vehicles off dealer lots in May.
Mexican dealers sold 4,858 new LVs on each of 25 selling days in May, a 1.1% increase from the 4,858 sold daily a year earlier and 11.7% more than the 4,399 delivered on each of 26 days in April.
The strong daily rate pushed sales volume for the month to a May record of 122,798 units, eclipsing the prior peak of 121,452 reached a year ago and, despite having one less selling day, bested April’s 114,378 deliveries by 8,420 vehicles.
Powering May to new heights were record light-truck sales of 45,815 that topped May 2016’s then-record 43,065 deliveries by 6.4%.
Compared with April they were up 12.1% and were the industry’s second-best showing so far this year behind March’s 48,747 deliveries.
Although car sales, at 76,983, also rebounded nicely from April’s 71,865 units, dealers couldn’t match the 78,387 units sold a year-ago, falling short by 1.8%.
Market-leader Nissan/Infiniti posted a 2.0% LV gain on year-ago in May while second-place General Motors suffered a 14.9% decline and sales of No.3 Volkswagen/Audi were down 6.0% despite Audi’s 4.1% gain.
January-May sales rose 4.8% to 614,784 units from 586,631 helped by Kia’s 83.9% increase, Hyundai’s 23.2% gain and Toyota’s 14.1% boost.
