Brazil October 2014: Fiat Palio on verge of historical achievement

Fiat Palio Fire Way

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The Brazilian new light vehicle market is stuck in muddy waters this year, down another 7% year-on-year in October to 291,412 registrations, which brings the year-to-date total to 2,695,393 units, down a terse 9% on 2013. Thanks to sales down just 4% on October 2013 to 58,899 units, Fiat maintains itself above 20% share ahead of Chevrolet at 17.6% (-16%) and Volkswagen at 16.9% (-13%) with Volkswagen holding for dear life onto the #2 spot YTD, a mere 2.500 units above Chevrolet. Hyundai bucks the overall market trend at +6% and 7.3% share vs. 5.6% one year ago, Toyota is up an even more impressive 19% to 6.5% share thanks to solid performances of the Corolla (+17%), Etios hatch (+66%) and sedan (+60%), Nissan gains 6%, Audi improves by a huge 112%, Mercedes by 111% and BMW by 27%.

The Chevrolet Onix outsells the VW Gol again and ranks #2 for the first time.

The Brazilian models ranking continues its fascinating reshuffle. The trends at play are all once in a decade (or more) occurrences and they are all happening at the same time. The Fiat Palio celebrates 5 consecutive months in pole position, helped by the tremendous success of the budget previous generation, the Palio Fire and especially its Fire Way variant. The Palio nameplate sells 16,622 units for a 5.7% share, up 25% on October 2013. Before this streak started back in June, the best the Palio had done in Brazil in its 18-year career was two consecutive months at #1 and a total of 4 lonely stints in first place: in November 97, September 06, October 06, and August 07. The stranglehold the VW Gol had on the Brazilian market for the past two decades seemed unbreakable. It wasn’t.

Too little too late? The bare bones VW Gol Special launched this month.

And it gets more interesting: with a 4.167 sales advantage over the Gol in October, the Palio is now only 1.798 units below the Gol YTD and at this rate should overtake it by next week. This would be the first time the Palio ever leads a YTD ranking in Brazil since its launch in 1996. The Gol is down 43% and stuck at a very unfamiliar #4 spot, while Volkswagen has been surprisingly slow to replace the previous generation budget Gol G4 (the equivalent of the Palio Fire) whose production ended at the end of 2013. Only in October did VW launch the bare bones Gol Special starting at R$ 27.990 for the 2 door with manual windows and mirrors, optional power steering, washer and rear window wipers and sound system. Brace yourselves for two months of cutthroat battle fuelled by incentives to secure the coveted title of best-selling model in the country…

The Ford Ka is now among Brazil’s 10 most popular vehicles.

Another milestone awaits in 2nd place: the Chevrolet Onix, launched two years ago with the sole aim of teasing the seemingly unattainable Gol, has now outsold its target two months in a row. With 13,590 sales and 4.7% share, it breaks its monthly ranking record in Brazil this month and is only outsold by the Fiat Palio. The Fiat Strada for its part continues on its astounding course this year with sales up 52% on October 2013 to 13,381 units at #3. The new generation Ford Ka is clicking with Brazilian customers: it breaks into the Top 10 at #8 with sales up 536% year-on-year on the previous model, and the Ka Sedan has now landed in the ranking at #64 with 881 units. Finally, notice the Chevrolet Prisma overtaking the Fiat Siena at #10 for the sedan crown and the VW Up now at it 8th consecutive month inside the Top 15.

More data will be uploaded shortly.

Previous month: Brazil September 2014: VW Gol down to #4, Ford Ka up to #12

One year ago: Brazil October 2013: Honda Civic hits highest ranking in 5 years

Full October 2014 Top 150 models and Top 20 brands Ranking Tables below.