Argentina Goes Car-crazy!
Everybody, please say hi to Matt Gasnier, our newest TTAC contributor. Matt has a strange car fetish: He counts them. Out of Sydney, Australia, Matt runs a blog named Best Selling Cars. If your want to know what cars sell best in Austria to Zimbabwe, Best Selling Cars is the go to site. What cars do Afghanistan and Sudan have in common? The Hilux. Which car is most popular in Sweden? It’s not a Swedish car. Matt will grace TTAC regularly from now on. He wanted to know where he should start. My answer: “Wherever.”
Said Matt: “Why don’t I start with A.” – ED
Most of the car world is either still recovering from the GFC gloom or is suffering the hangover of a couple of artificially boosted years. Only a few countries are at their highest levels ever. Among them China and Brazil (doh!) but little do people know that Argentina also belongs to this super-exclusive club.
In 2010, 662,591 new cars changed hands in the country, up 29 percent on 2009. The math is simple: never before had Argentineans bought that many new cars in a single year. And January 2011 confirmed the trend: for the first time ever, more than 100,000 new cars were sold in a month – 100,964 exactly. That’s twice as much as in (devastated) Spain in that same month.
VW, Chevrolet, Renault, Ford and Fiat do well in Argentina, but I’m not here to dwell on brands (I’ll leave that to much more talented writers on this site!), my thing is models sales.
Well, let me tell you there were a few interesting developments in the last few months in the Argentinean market…The overall market is led by the Chevrolet Classic, in actual fact a restyled 1993 Opel Corsa. But a few new models have made themselves noticed recently.
General Pacheco, Argentina is the first (and currently only until Hanover, Germany comes along in 2012) world production site for Volkswagen’s first heavy duty pick-up, the Amarok.
With the Toyota Hilux fairly and squarely in its sights, the Amarok has been slowly but surely climbing the Argentinean sales charts during the last few months. It hit the jackpot in December 2010: at #12 in the general ranking with 892 sales, it ranked above the Hilux (#19 at 625 sales) for the very first time in any country in the world.
The Toyota Hilux reclaimed the advantage in January but with only the Double Cab in concessions and the Single Cab still to be launched, the VW pick-up should see its sales progress further in 2011 and the battle between the two models will be intense.
Another interesting recent development in Argentina occurred in November 2010 when the Renault Sandero (aka Dacia Sandero) ranked #1. First launched in 2008 in Brazil and South America as a Renault then in Europe as a Dacia, the Sandero is now produced in 6 countries (Brazil, Colombia, Romania, South Africa, Morocco and Russia) but had never managed to top the sales rankings anywhere before then. It also does really well in Colombia (another country that broke its own record last year) where it ranked #3 over the full year 2010.
Lastly, a model that sparked a bit of controversy when launched, the Peugeot 207 Compact, is #1 for the first time in Argentina (and by the same token in any country in the world) in January 2011.
The Peugeot 207 Compact has actually nothing to do with the 207 launched in Europe and other parts of the world in 2006. It is in fact the Sedan version of the restyled Peugeot 206, called 206+ in Europe. How Peugeot thought they could get away with tricking a whole continent into believing this is a new car without anyone noticing is an enigma I would love one of our readers to solve for me!!
Anyhow, the model sold 4,653 units in January 2011 in Argentina, enough to make it the best seller in the country, just above the Chevrolet Classic.
I can hear some of you begging for more obscure and striking figures… Be my guest! Below is the Full Top 50 best selling cars in Argentina over the Full Year 2010, plus as a bonus the Top 50 for January 2011.
Argentina – Full Year 2010 Top 50:
RankModel2010 unitsMarket share1Chevrolet Classic36,0585.4%2Peugeot 207 Compact29,6134.5%3VW Gol Trend25,7563.9%4Renault Sandero24,3023.7%5Ford Ecosport21,3893.2%6VW Suran21,3773.2%7VW Gol Power18,7312.8%8Toyota Hilux18,2442.8%9Renault Kangoo16,2042.4%10Fiat Palio16,0902.4%11Renault Clio14,6542.2%12Ford Ka14,0042.1%13Chevrolet Aveo13,5182.0%14Fiat Siena13,2382.0%15Chevrolet Agile12,8101.9%16Ford Ranger12,4331.9%17VW Voyage11,9571.8%18VW Bora11,5241.7%19Ford Fiesta One11,2721.7%20Ford Focus II10,9471.7%21VW Fox10,3111.6%22Peugeot Partner9,6081.5%23Honda Fit9,1231.4%24Citroen C48,8781.3%25Fiat Punto8,8181.3%26Fiat Uno Fire8,7851.3%27Toyota Corolla8,6791.3%28Renault Logan8,2081.2%29Chevrolet S108,1721.2%30Peugeot 3078,1251.2%31Renault Symbol7,8071.2%32Fiat Fiorino7,5631.1%33VW Amarok7,5601.1%34Chevrolet Meriva6,6351.0%35Nissan Tiida6,5271.0%36Suzuki Fun6,3741.0%37VW Vento6,0960.9%38Peugeot 2065,8810.9%39Chevrolet Astra5,7160.9%40Citroen C35,3490.8%41Honda City5,3300.8%42Renault Megane II5,1230.8%43Citroen Berlingo5,1040.8%44VW Saveiro4,0440.6%45Honda CRV3,6850.6%46Chevrolet Vectra3,5070.5%47Renault Master3,4080.5%48Citroen Picasso3,3960.5%49Fiat Strada3,2920.5%50Mercedes Sprinter3,1140.5%Argentina January 2011 Top 50:
RankModelJan unitsShare1Peugeot 207 Compact4,6534.60%2Chevrolet Classic4,6084.60%3Ford Ecosport3,8403.80%4Renault Sandero3,4413.40%5VW Gol Trend3,1713.10%6VW Suran2,9092.90%7Toyota Hilux2,8132.80%8Renault Clio2,4112.40%9Renault Kangoo2,3972.40%10VW Amarok2,3362.30%11Chevrolet Aveo2,2642.20%12Ford Focus II2,2122.20%13Fiat Siena2,0252.00%14Peugeot Partner2,0012.00%15Ford Ka1,8501.80%16VW Bora1,8071.80%17VW Voyage1,7571.70%18Chevrolet Agile1,7331.70%19Toyota Corolla1,5751.60%20VW Fox1,5741.60%21Honda Fit1,5231.50%22Ford Ranger1,4731.50%23Renault Logan1,4481.40%24Peugeot 3071,4021.40%25Fiat Uno 20101,3741.40%26Fiat Palio1,3311.30%27Citroen C41,2801.30%28Nissan Tiida1,2121.20%29Peugeot 2061,1461.10%30Fiat Punto1,1301.10%31Chevrolet S101,0791.10%32Ford Fiesta Kinetic1,0751.10%33Fiat Uno Fire1,0641.10%34Renault Symbol1,0541.00%35Fiat Fiorino1,0511.00%36Honda City1,0441.00%37Renault Fluence1,0391.00%38VW Gol Power9681.00%39Ford Fiesta One9340.90%40Fiat Palio Weekend9100.90%41Citroen Berlingo8380.80%42Chevrolet Astra8370.80%43Citroen C37940.80%44Dodge Journey7770.80%45Fiat Idea7010.70%46VW Vento6530.60%47VW CrossFox6510.60%48Chevrolet Meriva6460.60%49Chevrolet Corsa II6010.60%50Citroen Xsara Picasso5520.50%More on http://bestsellingcars.wordpress.com/
All figures are provided by ACARA, Asociacion de Concesionarios de Automotores de la Republica Argentina. See http://www.acara.org.ar for more details.
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Haha man this is one overly positive account of the shitstorm we hoons have to endure every day in this country. Let me start with this easy comparison: a base brazilian-made civic that lacks stuff even the cheapest US civic has had for over a decade, this shitbox costs over $27,000 here. The average wage here is $500 a month, do the math. Now the government has enacted an even higher tax for imports, so goodbye cheap yet better build and safer korean imports. Sedans? "big" hatchs are all the rage here, some people still buy the ugly-as-shit last restyling of the MKIV Golf. Yes, they still make those here, and it goes for even more than the Civic. The other big sector is the faux SUVs we get from brasil like the sandero there, which adds insult to injury with a higher ground clearance than the original but without ABS. ESP? thats not even an option here, only imports got that and those will be gone in a month now. So next time you bitch about not much it sucks that fomoco wont sell the focus ST, or how ugly the last impreza is, remember that you can always be in a much uglier situation. Like stuck in argentina for example...
ohhh, that doesn't sound good. I am expecting to move to Argentina to work in the agriculture sector. I wonder how plausible it would be to ship a pickup to AR? Like a 10 yeAr old Ford or Dodge Ram diesel.