A growing economy and a robustly expanding job market provided Mexican consumers with the confidence to drive home an all-time high number of new light vehicles in August, thanks to record-setting new-car deliveries.
Mexican dealers delivered an average of 4,323 new cars and light trucks on each of 24 selling days in August, equaling 103,753 units, the first time ever August sales bested the 100,000-unit mark, a level historically seen only in November and December.
That was enough to erase the prior high of 90,395 vehicles (3,616 daily) sold in August 2006 and topped the 3,836 units sold daily in the same month last year on fourth-best August volume of 88,232.
Unlike its neighbors to the North, Mexico’s LV market remains firmly grounded in cars, a record number of which were sold in August.
New-car deliveries totaled 67,802 units, an 8.2% increase from the prior peak of 59,802 set in 2002 and best prior-year’s tally of 56,001 units by 24.9%.
On the other hand, sales of 36,272 light trucks fell 8.4% shy of matching the August record of 38,017 units set in 2008, placing third for the month historically.
Still light-truck deliveries managed a robust 16.9% gain on prior-year’s sixth-best ever 32,234 units.
Detroit Three brands posted a 19.4% year-over-year August gain, ahead of the European brand’s 10.4% increase but well behind the 30.7% boosted achieved by the Asian brands.
Nissan, including Infiniti, remains entrenched as the industry leader both for the month and the year, with gains of 24.0% and 25.5%, respectively.
