Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Puerto Ricans "no Compran Estadounidense"

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

After California, today we study the most popular cars in another territory of the United States: the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico.

Couldn’t care less about what cars sell well in a Caribbean Island? Rude! But that’s ok because you can check out new car sales data for 176 additional countries and territories on my blog. Go on, you know you want to!

Back to Puerto Rico below the jump!

Kia Rio

Check out the July 2013 Top 182 All-models and Top 28 All-brands rankings in Puerto Rico here

After two months of decline, the Puerto Rican new light vehicle market is back into positive territory in July 2013, up 2% year-on-year to 8,110 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 57,650 units, also up 2% on 2012.

The Toyota Corolla (7.4% share) and Yaris (6.2%) keep the lead but Kia delivers another outstanding month, #2 brand on the island for the 2nd time in a row thanks to 981 sales and 12.1% share and now #3 year-to-date. The Korean manufacturer places the Rio in third position in the models ranking at 434 units and 5.4%, up one spot on June while the Forte is down 4 to a still excellent #9 and 2.4%. The Toyota RAV4 also excels thanks to the new generation, up 4 ranks to #4 and 3.8%.

The Ford Fiesta manages a spot in the Top 10 in Puerto Rico this month.

Traditionally, US models don’t sell well in Puerto Rico: luck if one manages to break into the monthly Top 10! So in this mediocre context, July is a relatively good month for American manufacturers, with 6 Yankees inside the Top 26 best-sellers this month. The Jeep Wrangler leads the way as usual at #7 (+2), followed by the Ford Fiesta, up an excellent 12 spots to the Ford Escape at #19 (+6), Chevrolet Sonic at #22 (+11), Jeep Grand Cherokee at #23 (-5) and Ford F-Series at #26 (+8). Notice also the Mitsubishi Outlander down 6 to a still very solid the Fiat 500 up an astounding 44 spots to Mazda CX-5 up 8 to #32 and the Scion tC up 34 to

Check out the July 2013 Top 182 All-models and Top 28 All-brands rankings in Puerto Rico here

That’s all for today!

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

Matt Gasnier
Matt Gasnier

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  • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Aug 31, 2013

    I was in Puerto Rico once. Struck me as a happy place with smiling people. A kind of cleaned up and richer Latin America. Thanks Matt once again for the fine post.

  • Speedlaw Speedlaw on Aug 31, 2013

    Puerto Rico is a lovely island with nice people. I drove around it a few years ago. The roads aren't great. Once you get off the main roads, you have a lot of winding single lane roads, which can be interesting when the School Bus or Trash truck goes by. Small and Tough cars rule. Old Toyotas are rebuilt endlessly-it is kind of impressive how many are still there. Even though there is no freeze/thaw cycle, the typical road is two lanes with some holes, and oft there are drainage ditches...think an inverse speed bump. Most cars were a bit beat up, and it is NOT a high speed market. I was amazed at the guy who had a 935 styled 911-I figured the low air dam would last about 10 miles. If I lived there, I'd buy a small SUV type vehicle-something with ground clearance. The other choice, as made by many is "cheap", which is why so many swap a lovely view of San Juan for the Bronx...there isn't much money there and an industrious person will do better in NYC...no immigration hassles so most people we talked to had family in the States and in PR. I was impressed by a guy who had an early 60's Chrysler New Yorker..keeping a car in that environment is tough, between the heat, sun, and salt air. Except for those old Toyotas, most don't last very long... One huge issue about Statehood...as long as PR isn't a "State", they don't pay income tax. I wish I had that choice !

    • EdSTS2000 EdSTS2000 on Sep 01, 2013

      There is a good reason for the historical disdain for US branded vehicles: the excise tax charged on cars used to be based on vehicle weight and engine displacement. Domestic and imported cars that had the same price in the continental US would have very different excise taxes levied on them, and the sale prices would adjust accordingly, in favor of the smaller bodied and engined foreign imports. Also, the current excise tax is fairly steep... Example 1: 2013 Camaro ZL1. Base MSRP of $54K, valued by PR Dept. of Revenue at $77K, the estimated excise tax is $24K. Example 2: 2013 BMW 328i sedan. Base MSRP of $36K, valued by PR Dept. of Revenue at $48K, the estimated excise tax is $12K. Example 3: 2013 Kia Rio EX. Base MSRP of $17K, valued by PR Dept. of Revenue at $21K, the estimated excise tax is $4K. See for yourself, Google "puerto rico car excise tax" and the first link is to the PR Department of Revenue web page where you can get the excise tax estimate. With that kind of excise tax, you can see why new cars are a lot less affordable than in the US (plus the lower average income). Also, taxes in PR are no bargain, the commonwealth income tax rate is higher than the federal income tax rate.

  • ToolGuy Honda was robbed.
  • ToolGuy "Honey, someone is trying to cross the moat again"
  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
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