Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog

Chevrolet Classic

The Uruguayan car market improves on an already record-breaking year, up 33% at 19,087 units over the first 5 months of 2011. Thanks to Sebastian from Montevideo, Uruguay, we now have a better insight into the best-selling brands and models in the country, many thanks Sebastian!

Chery QQ

Chevrolet holds 28% of the market, VW is at 13% and Fiat at 8%. In the continuity of last year, Chinese brands are making enormous progress in Uruguay: they are now 8 in the Top 20 best-selling brands!

BYD F0

Chery ranks #5 at a very impressive 5.3% of the market, which means it is ahead of Peugeot, Ford, Renault, Toyota and Hyundai. The Chery QQ accounts for an estimated 80% of Chery sales, likely putting the model on the podium! BYD is #12, Great Wall #14, ahead of Effa (#15), FAW (#16), Geely (#17), Lifan (#19) and Chana (#20).

Lifan 320

The Chevrolet Classic is still the best-seller in Uruguay, with the VW Gol, Chevrolet Celta, Agile, Aveo Sedan, Fiat Uno and Peugeot 207 Compact also strong sellers. Among Chinese models, the BYD F0 and Lifan 320 (built locally) are among the favourites.

Full Top 20 Brands Ranking Table below.

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Holden Cruze

* Now updated with the Top 150 best-selling models! See ‘Read more’ at end of post *

The Australian car market is at -13% and 77,406 units, impacted by supply issues related to the Japanese tsunami. For the first time since March 2005, Holden passes Toyota as the best selling brand in the country with 11,115 units vs. 11,044. The Holden Commodore leads for the 4th month in a row at 3,504 sales and 4.5% ahead of the Toyota Hilux (4.1%) and therefore reclaims the #1 spot in the 2011 year-to-date ranking with 17,223 units and 4.3%.

VW Golf

Confirming the positive impact of its newly localised production, the Holden Cruze climbs onto the Australian podium for the very first time at #3 with a best-ever 3.8% share and 2,914 sales. The Cruze leads the small car category for the first time and sells twice as many units as the Toyota Corolla, out of the Top 10 for the first time in 10 years.

The other great performer of the month is the VW Golf, reaching its best-ever position in Australia at #7 with 1,864 sales and a best-ever 2.4% share. Its previous best was #9 and 2.3% in June 2010. The Holden Captiva excels at #9 with 1,606 sales and 2.1%, and the Hyundai ix35 at #19, Kia Cerato at #26, Mitsubishi Pajero at #27 and Suzuki Alto at #29 all have a very solid month.

Quick update on Chinese models: recently facelifted, the Great Wall V240 ute is up and getting closer to the Top 50 at a best-ever 54th place with 434 sales and 0.6%, the Great Wall X240 is strong at #67, the Chery J11 is down 4 spots on last month at #110 and the Chery J1 is up to #129 with 82 sales.

More commentaries and full Top 150 Ranking Table below.

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Citroen C3

34,767 new cars were sold during the week in France, a reasonable 5% drop year-on-year. For once the Citroen C3 is the best-selling model in the country at a very solid 4.2% market share, beating traditional leaders Renault Clio, #2 at 4% and Peugeot 207, #4 at 3.4%.

The Renault Megane has a strong week in 3rd place and 3.6%, as does the Dacia Duster, back to an impressive 5th position with 2.8% share. The VW Polo is the best-selling foreign model this week at #10 with 787 sales and 2.3%.

Full Top 10 Ranking Table below.

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Saipa Tiba

* Many thanks to Max from Italy for sharing the data source for this post! *

The Iran Vehicles Manufacturers Association (IVMA) publishes car production data monthly so I am now able to share with you for the first time some official monthly figures for Iran!

In the Iranian calendar, May 2011 corresponds roughly to the 2nd month of year 1390. 124,794 passenger cars were produced last month, up 7% year-on-year. A total of 1,367,014 units were produced during calendar year 2010, making Iran one of the Top 10 car markets in the world.

Saipa 132/new Pride

Two local manufacturers, Iran Khodro (IKCO) and Saipa dominate the market. The Saipa New Pride, a restyled 1986 Kia Pride, leads the way with astounding numbers: 56,645 units produced last month, 86,567 year-to-date and 609,045 or 45% of the total production during 2010!

Peugeot 405/Pars

Produced by Iran Khodro, the 23 year-old Peugeot 405 comes in 2nd place with 24,964 units last month and 343,940 last year (yes that’s nearly 350,000 units produced in one year!!), ahead of the Peugeot 206 at 13,710 and 156,553 units respectively. The Iran Khodro Samand is #4 with 13,231 units and the Tondar 90 (aka Dacia Logan) is up 61% year-on-year at 6,230 units at #5.

Solid start for the Peugeot 207i (aka 206+) seeing 3,597 units coming out of the Iran Khodro  factory this month at #6. Another new model makes its appearance in the ranking: 3,210 units of the Saipa Tiba were produced in the last 2 months in Iran.

Iran Khodro Runna

Iran Khodro Dena

Iran Khodro has unveiled two models planned to start production in the next year: the Runna, based on the 206 platform, will kick-off in September 2011 with a production target of 150,000 units/year, and the Dena, using a modified Peugeot 405 platform, will start production in April 2012, targeting 100,000 units/year from 2015 onwards.

Full May 2011 and Full Year 2010 Top 10 Ranking Tables below.

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Peugeot 3008

* Now updated with the Top 130 best-selling models! See ‘Read more’ at end of post *

For its second month without scrappage schemes, the French car market is surprisingly up 6% at 197,784 registrations (but -8% on an adjusted basis). The the daily sales average at 8,990 is ahead of April’s (8,472) which is also very encouraging.

For the first time in ages – at least in my 33 years lifetime and possibly ever – Peugeot passes Renault to become the best-selling brand in France with 35,982 sales (+10%) vs. 35,542 (-14%) for Renault and 33,057 (+16%) for Citroen, a very close #3.

The Peugeot 207 leads French sales for the 2nd month in a row with 9,521 units and 4.8%, just above the Renault Clio at 9,347 and 4.7%. However the Clio stays #1 year-to-date with 51,546 sales and 5.1%. The Citroen C3 is back on the podium at #3, up 4 spots on April with 3.4% share, staying#3 overall year-to-date.

This month’s best performance goes to the Peugeot 3008, delivering by far the best month of its 2 year-career: it breaks into the Top 5 for the very first time at #5 with 6,472 sales and 3.3% share. Previous bests were #8, 5,676 sales and 2.8% share, each achieved in separate months.

Citroen DS4

The Citroen C4 Picasso is up 7 spots at #7, the Opel Corsa is the best-selling foreign model at #9, and the Dacia Duster ranks within the Top 10 for the 3rd month in a row. The Peugeot 508 improves its share to 1.8% but drops two spots to #19 and the Citroen DS4 lands directly at #52 with 1,045 sales.

Full Top 130 Ranking Table below.

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The Speranza A516 is the only Chinese car to have broken into the Egyptian Top 10

* Many thanks to Ldman1 who made these updates possible! *

After May 2011 figures, Historical Data spanning the last 6 years is now available for Egypt. From 2005 onwards you can check out at least the 45 best-selling models of each year.

Witness the Egyptian market double in size in the 3 years leading to 2008, the Chevrolet TFR pickup’s regularity at the highest level, the Daewoo/Chevrolet Lanos stay a long-time favourite and Hyundai getting stronger and stronger with the Verna, Matrix, Elantra and Accent.

You will also see yearly updates on Chinese Chery’s Egypt-exclusive brand: Speranza, the 4th best-selling passenger car brand in Egypt since 2008 and selling more than Toyota since 2009! The Speranza A516 even ranked #9 from 2007 to 2009.

Click on ‘Read more’ for the direct links to these 6 new posts.

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Chery QQ

* See the Top 120 best-selling models by clicking on ‘Read more’ at the end of the post *

Car sales continue to impress in Brazil, up 16% during the first half of June. The two stars of the market are both very solid: the VW Gol is #1 for the 4th fortnight in a row at 13,607 sales and 9.6% and the Fiat Uno reaches its best market share at 8.9% and 12,642 units.

The Chevrolet Celta reinforces its 3rd place at 4.6% share, the Fiat Strada stays strong at #5 and 3.7% and the VW Saveiro ranks within the Top 10 for only the second time in 10 years after mid-May this year… The VW Jetta is up 11 spots to #35.

The Chinese are getting stronger by the week in Brazil: the JAC J3 is up again to #33 at 954 sales and 0.7%, the Chery QQ is already #46 at 734 units and 0.5% for its 2nd month of sales, up 32 spots on May and the JAC J3 Turin is up 7 spots to #53.

Full mid-June 2011 Top 120 Ranking Table below.

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Hyundai Verna

* Now updated with the Top 50 best-selling models actuals for May 2011! *

* Thanks to AMIC Egypt, Ldman1 and Max I am now able to share with you for the first time an official models ranking for Egypt! See the May and year-to-date 2011 Rankings by clicking on ‘Read more’ at the end of the post *

The recent events in the country have had an impact on car sales, down 32% year-on-year in May at 14,798 units and 40% over the first 5 months of 2011 at 59,631 units. The best-selling car in Egypt is the Hyundai Verna from two generations ago, still on sale in the country and an enormous success with taxi companies. The model sells 1,449 units in May for a solid 9.8% market share and 6,204 units year-to-date at 10.4%, and it is estimated that 40% of these sales are taxis.

Chevrolet T-Series

The Chevrolet pick-up, called T-series in Egypt (aka Luv or Isuzu D-Max) takes the 2nd spot both in May and year-to-date at 1,377 and 5,542 sales respectively and a stable 9.3% share. These two models dominate the Egyptian ranking, with all other cars under 5% share in May and year-to-date.

Hyundai Accent RB (from Dubai)

The Hyundai Elantra is strong this month at #3 and 4.9%, up from #4 and 4.1% year-to-date. Hyundai places a 3rd model in the Top 4 with the recently launched Accent RB up to 4th place with 663 sales and 4.5%, it is #6 at 3.4% year-to-date. The Chevrolet Lanos rounds up the Top 5 at 4.3%, down from 4.9% and #3 year-to-date and 6.8% in 2010.

Speranza Tiggo

Chinese brand Chery sells its locally-produced models under the Speranza name in Egypt (#5 best-selling brand in May) and places 4 cars in the Top 35: the Speranza Tiggo is the best-selling Chinese model in the country at #11 year-to-date but #16 in May, the Speranza A516 (aka Chery A5) is #15 in May, the Speranza A113 (Chery A1) is #19 and Speranza M11 (Chery A3) is #33.

Full May and Year-to-date Top 50 Ranking Tables below.

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Daihatsu Move

After dropping by 45% last month, the Kei car market is on the mend like the passenger cars, down 18% in May at 58,307 units. The Suzuki Wagon R is the best-seller in the category for the third month in a row at 11,185 sales, down 23% and bringing its 5-month total to 61,868 units.

#2 again but up 7% year-on-year with 9,402 sales, the Daihatsu Move manages to stay atop the 2011 year-to-date ranking with 64,085 units. The Daihatsu Tanto is stable at #3 at 9,267 sales, ahead of the Suzuki Alto and Honda Life. The Suzuki MR Wagon is back in the Top 10 with 2,222 units changing hands, up 110% year-on-year.

Full Top 20 Ranking Table.

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DongFeng Utah

* Many thanks to Yves Levy from Noumea, New Caledonia for sharing this information! *

After giving up its throne to the Dacia Duster last month, the Ford Ranger reclaims the leadership of the New Caledonian car market in May with 85 sales, but the Duster stays strong at 71 units in 2nd position. The Renault Clio is stable on the 3rd step of the podium at 58 sales and the Toyota Hilux holding on to its 4th place.

Ford Ranger

The performance of the month goes to China’s DongFeng Utah (aka Rich), in fact none other than a rebadged old gen Nissan Navara pick-up, up to 7th this month. It is actually the second time the Utah breaks into the New Caledonian Top 10 after reaching the 3rd spot last November.

Full Top 10 Ranking Table: click on ‘Read more’ below.

And don’t forget to check out the Full Year 2010 New Caledonia post here.

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