Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Chevrolet Owns Colombia

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

We’ve been traveling quite a fair bit over the last few weeks, stopping in Venezuela, the USA in 1986, Cambodia and Panama. We are staying in the Americas this week to hop our way to Colombia.

Not interested? Move along… Oh wait. Actually, if this is not your cup of Colombian coffee, that’s fine, I’ve prepared 155 other countries for you to visit in my blog, and I can tell you it is muy interesante, so click away!

Colombia is one of a few South American countries to be dominated by Chevrolet…

But first a quick health-check on Colombian car sales: they are up a massive 48 percent year-on-year over the first 6 months of 2011 at 150,464 registrations. Healthy? Check.

Now to the models ranking: since 2006 the Chevrolet Aveo has been topping the Colombian charts since 2006 and 2011 is no exception: with 16,556 units sold in 6 months, the Aveo grabs a very respectable 11 percent market share.

However this year it is threatened by another member of the Chevrolet family: the Spark, now boosted by the new generation called ‘GT’ there, manages 15,642 units for a very robust 10.4 percent market share, compared to 7.3 percent in 2010.

Renault is the other strong marque in Colombia and has been for decades with a production facility in the country opened way back in 1970. The Sandero is on the podium with 9,272 sales and 6.2 percent share (up from 5.1% in 2010)…

…and the Logan ranks 4th with 8,838 sales and 5.9 percent share (up from 4.4% last year)

Another Chevrolet rounds up the Top 5: the Captiva, with 3.3 percent of the market.

Excellent performance of the Nissan Tiida going from #15 in 2010 to #6 over the period, while the Ford Fiesta is up 16 spots to #10 and the VW Jetta is up 4 spots to

Top 30 best-selling models in Colombia over the first 6 months of 2011:

PosModel6m 2011%1Chevrolet Aveo16,55611.0%2Chevrolet Spark15,46210.3%3Renault Sandero/Stepway9,2726.2%4Renault Logan8,8385.9%5Chevrolet Captiva5,0023.3%6Nissan Tiida3,8242.5%7Chevrolet LUV3,5452.4%8Nissan D223,4742.3%9Renault Twingo3,1352.1%10Ford Fiesta2,5981.7%11Mazda22,4381.6%12Kia Cerato2,3371.6%13Toyota Hilux2,1751.4%14Chevrolet Optra2,1521.4%15Toyota Prado2,0631.4%16Mazda BT-501,9831.3%17VW Jetta1,9781.3%18Kia Rio1,9601.3%19Hyundai Tucson1,7941.2%20Kia Picanto1,7841.2%21Hyundai i25/Accent1,7601.2%22Kia Sportage1,6211.1%23Mazda31,6131.1%24Toyota Fortuner1,5681.0%25Chevrolet Cruze1,5551.0%26Nissan Sentra1,4551.0%27Hyundai i101,4000.9%28Renault Koleos1,2610.8%29Chevrolet Grand Vitara1,1490.8%30Dodge Journey1,0500.7%

Not for the weekly gold nugget that will make you shine in posh dinners…

Chinese manufacturers are starting to get noticed in Colombia: the Chery Face is the best-selling Chinese model in the country with 222 sales, followed by the Great Wall Wingle (207) and BYD F0 (201).

Figures are sourced from es.autoblog.com

Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.

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Matt Gasnier

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  • Dolorean Dolorean on Oct 13, 2011

    "Chinese manufacturers are starting to get noticed in Colombia: the Chery Face is the best-selling Chinese model in the country with 222 sales, followed by the Great Wall Wingle (207) and BYD F0 (201)." Hysterical. Here's the conversation over coffee. "Oh, I went and looked at all the sport compacts and I gotta tell you, I took a hard one in the Chery Face!" Yeah that's happening.

  • ManuelFaber ManuelFaber on Jan 20, 2012

    Well I have to comment this because I lived in Colombia for a long time, now I live in France. There Renault (Renault are produced in the country, is considered by Bogota's people as the "national car") In Renault apogee in the country by earlier 80's Renault 9 was the most sold car in the country besides Dacia called there Renault 12... SInce 2000's korean cars (Hyundai and Daewoo GM called Chevrolet there) invaded the market and conquered it, Colombia usines Renault ensamble car to Venezuela, Panama, Peru and even Ecuador... Sorry Matt for the long post, but I am also obsessed by car marketing trends around the world and I think Latin America is a potencial market to conquer and despite cliches the country is the 4th economy of Latin America... Bye and great work !

  • David Murilee Martin, These Toyota Vans were absolute garbage. As the labor even basic service cost 400% as much as servicing a VW Vanagon or American minivan. A skilled Toyota tech would take about 2.5 hours just to change the air cleaner. Also they also broke often, as they overheated and warped the engine and boiled the automatic transmission...
  • Marcr My wife and I mostly work from home (or use public transit), the kid is grown, and we no longer do road trips of more than 150 miles or so. Our one car mostly gets used for local errands and the occasional airport pickup. The first non-Tesla, non-Mini, non-Fiat, non-Kia/Hyundai, non-GM (I do have my biases) small fun-to-drive hatchback EV with 200+ mile range, instrument display behind the wheel where it belongs and actual knobs for oft-used functions for under $35K will get our money. What we really want is a proper 21st century equivalent of the original Honda Civic. The Volvo EX30 is close and may end up being the compromise choice.
  • Mebgardner I test drove a 2023 2.5 Rav4 last year. I passed on it because it was a very noisy interior, and handled poorly on uneven pavement (filled potholes), which Tucson has many. Very little acoustic padding mean you talk loudly above 55 mph. The forums were also talking about how the roof leaks from not properly sealed roof rack holes, and door windows leaking into the lower door interior. I did not stick around to find out if all that was true. No talk about engine troubles though, this is new info to me.
  • Dave Holzman '08 Civic (stick) that I bought used 1/31/12 with 35k on the clock. Now at 159k.It runs as nicely as it did when I bought it. I love the feel of the car. The most expensive replacement was the AC compressor, I think, but something to do with the AC that went at 80k and cost $1300 to replace. It's had more stuff replaced than I expected, but not enough to make me want to ditch a car that I truly enjoy driving.
  • ToolGuy Let's review: I am a poor unsuccessful loser. Any car company which introduced an EV which I could afford would earn my contempt. Of course I would buy it, but I wouldn't respect them. 😉
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