Mexico September 2018: Mazda, Toyota and premium brands soften drop to lowest yet (-1.5%)

Land Rover sales shoot up 438% year-on-year in Mexico in September…

* See the Top 40 All-brands and Top 280 All-models by clicking on the title *

Although new light vehicle sales in Mexico register a 16th consecutive month of year-on-year decline in September, it is the smallest drop so far at -1.5% to 114.673 and the market’s best performance since its last year-on-year gain in at +1.1% in May 2017. The case for a softening of the negative trend is now gaining traction after declines of 7% or less over the previous four months. As a result the year-to-date volume is down 7.1% to 1.028.490 units. But once again and for the 8th connective month, brand leader Nissan falls much faster than the market at -10% to 22.1% share, in line with the 22.3% it commands YTD. On the other hand Chevrolet (+4%) is in positive but remains far below at 15.7% share vs. 15.2% YTD. In fact, there are more gains than losses in the Top 10 brands this month with Mazda (+22%), Toyota (+10%), Kia (+7%) hitting its best share since January at 7%, Honda (+2%) and Hyundai (+0.1%) also with a smile. Ford (-27%) and Volkswagen (-16%) struggle however. Further down, Land Rover (+438%), Jaguar (+375%), Mercedes (+54%), Suzuki (+53%), BMW (+50%), Lamborghini (+50%), Mini (+45%), Acura (+43%) and Volvo (+43%) stand out.

…while Jaguar is up 375%, boosted by the arrival of the E-Pace.

Momentous event in the models ranking, our reporting includes back nameplates from brands who had stopped sharing detail in 2018 such as Acura, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, Renault, Seat and Volkswagen (note YTD tallies for these models remain estimated), but also nameplates from most premium brands that had only rarely been available previously: Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes and Volvo. The total number of nameplates included in 2018 YTD therefore jumps from 220 to 300. All-in-all, the Nissan Versa (+22%) reclaims the top spot off the Chevrolet Aveo (+93%) with the Nissan Pickup (-2%), VW Vento (+1%) and Chevrolet Beat (-9%) rounding up the Top 5. Like last month there are two Kias in the Top 10: the Rio (-7%) at #8 and the Forte (+57%) at a new record #9 while the Nissan Kicks breaks into the Mexican Top 10 for the first time at #10. The Honda BR-V (#29) tops all recent launches ahead of the Renault Oroch (#46), Seat Arona (#71), Toyota C-HR (#73), Honda Insight (#93), VW Teramont (#98), Kia Sedona (#122), Hyundai Starex (#131) and BAIC D20 (#139).

Previous month: Mexico August 2018: Chevrolet Aveo snaps first win in 20 months

One year ago: Mexico September 2017: Market now in negative year-to-date

Full September 2018 Top 40 All-brands and Top 220 All-models below.