Brazil March 2015: Fiat Strada and Chevrolet Onix on top

For the first time, the Chevrolet Onix is the best-selling passenger car in Brazil.

* See the Top 20 best-selling brands and Top 140 models by clicking on the title *

New car sales in Brazil show clear signs of progress in March: down just 1% year-on-year to 225,981 registrations, which brings the first quarter total to 648,677 units, down 16% on 2014. For once Fiat performs the worst among top manufacturers: down 25% to 40,593 deliveries and 18% share, with Chevrolet (16.4% share) and Volkswagen (15.4%) both down 8%. Reversely, among the rest of the Top 10 brands, Hyundai is up 11%, Ford up 18%, Renault up 22%, Nissan up 37%, Honda up 39% and Toyota up 45% in a very impressive string of strong year-on-year gains. The 3 premium Germans also very frankly outperform the market: Mercedes is up 65%, Audi up 59% and BMW up 14%.

The Fiat Strada is the best-selling nameplate in Brazil for the 2nd time ever.

The models ranking offers its lot of surprises this month: for only the second time ever after March 2014, the Fiat Strada is the best-selling vehicle in the country despite sales down a harsh 24% year-on-year to 9,946. In second place we however witness an even more significant event: the Chevrolet Onix tops all passenger cars for the first time, here too despite a serious year-on-year drop of 22% to 9,548 units. This means the Onix outsells the Fiat Palio (down 28% to 9,232) for the very first time, but also the Hyundai HB20 (up 9% to 9,100 sales), the Fiat Uno (down 16% to 8,671) and the VW Gol (down 33% to 8,351).

The Honda HR-V lands directly at #33 this month.

A string of recently (re)launched nameplates display explosive growth this month in Brazil: the Ford Ka cements its new Top 10 blockbuster status thanks to its new generation with an excellent 7th place at 8,151 sales, the Renault Sandero is up 32% to #8, Toyota Corolla up 110% to #12, Hyundai HB20S up 41% to #14, VW Up up 40% to #15 and Honda Fit up 80% to #16. The Ford Ka sedan is up 8 ranks on February to a best-ever #21 with 3,475 sales and the Honda HR-V lands directly at an outstanding #33 with 2,382 sales and 1.1% share for its first full month in market. Pick-up trucks are on fire too: the VW Saveiro is up 44% to #10 and the VW Amarok up 23% to #43. Finally, there are only two Chinese nameplate inside the Top 100 this month: the Lifan X60 at #88 and the Chery Celer at #98.

Previous month: Brazil February 2015: VW Up in Top 10, threatens Golf

One year ago: Brazil March 2014: VW Gol passed by Fiat Strada and Palio, threatened by Onix!

Full March 2015 Top 20 brands and Top 140 models below.