Gulf March 2014: Nissan Patrol slices ranking in two vs. 2013

The Nissan Patrol VVIP Special Edition is only available in the Gulf region.

* See the Top 300 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Thanks Ldman *

The Gulf Cooperation Council area includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. New car sales in the region are up a robust 11% year-on-year in March to 154,406 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 430,774 units, up 6.5% on 2013. This month Toyota monopolises the Top 5 with the Hilux head and shoulders above the competition at 12,039 sales and 7.8%, reaching the #1 spot in 3 out of the 6 countries composing the region (Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman). The Toyota Prado, #1 in Kuwait and Bahrain, holds the second spot both this month with 6,825 units and 4.4% and year-to-date at 20,334 and 4.7%.

Toyota Yaris

Logically, the last model to manage a top spot ranking this month, the Toyota Land Cruiser (#1 in Qatar), rounds up the March podium with 6,577 sales and 4.3% share but ranks 4th year-to-date at 18,613 units. The Toyota Corolla ranks 4th with 3.7% share and is now threatened by its lil sis the Toyota Yaris, boosted by the new generation sedan and a beautiful 2nd spot in Saudi Arabia this month, totalling 5,628 sales and 3.9% in the region. The Yaris passes both the Hyundai Elantra (#6) and Accent (#7) once again the most popular non-Toyota models in the region.

The Toyota Prado is the 2nd best-seller in the region so far in 2014.

The Nissan Patrol is the best performer in the Top 10 with sales up a huge 97% compared to March 2013 in 9th place with 4,187 sales and 2.7% share vs. #18 in 2013, while its year-to-date total is up 71% on 2013 to 9,543 units at #11. The Chevrolet Tahoe is also performing really well at #11 this month and #15 year-to-date vs. #20 last year. The Hyundai Santa Fe benefits from the arrival of the ‘Grand’ model to climb to #16 in March and #17 year-to-date vs. #23 in 2013, and the Nissan Altima is up 7 spots on February to #23.

Jaguar XJ

Further down, let’s salute the Nissan Micra up a massive 86 ranks on February to #53, the Nissan Maxima up 61 to #60, Mitsubishi Lancer Fortis up 42 to #68, Dodge Challenger up 77 to #86, Chevrolet Traverse up 47 to #93 and Jaguar XJ up 67 to #116. A few newcomers start to get noticed: the Mitsubishi Attrage is up from #204 in February to #99 this month, the Maserati Ghibli is up from #249 to #165, the Infiniti Q50 up from #256 to #191, Chevrolet Trax up from #308 to #234, the BMW 2 Series landing at #281 and the Renault Twizy at #302.

Previous post: Gulf January 2014: Nissan Patrol almost in Top 10

Previous year: Gulf Full Year 2013: Toyota Hilux down, Corolla and Prado up

Full March 2014 Top 300 models Ranking Table below.