Turkey Full Year 2018: Fiat Egea 3peats, Honda Civic stuns in imploding market (-35.1%)

The Fiat Egea has now been the #1 vehicle in Turkey for 3 consecutive years.

Consult 25 years of Turkish Historical Data here.

It’s a year to forget for new light vehicle sales in Turkey. In August, inflation reached 18% – a 15-year high – and the Turkish lira had lost 55% of its value against the US dollar since the start of the year, hitting an-all-time high 6.86, and the economic situation finally caught up with the car market. Sales were up YTD until March but started skidding in April, hitting double-digit drops from May onwards (-15%) and worsening in June (-39%), July (-36%), August (-53%), September (-75%) and October (-77%) then marginally recovering in November (-42%) and December (-43%). The Full Year 2018 score is therefore down an abysmal 35.1% to 620.937 units including Light Commercials, the lowest volume since 2009. Within this shocking context, the Top 4 brands remain the same: Renault (-34.1%) outpaces the market to repeat at #1 and slightly improve its share to 13.8%, but Fiat (-41.6%), Volkswagen (-43.1%) and Ford (-41.1%) all fall even faster than the market, resulting is drastically reduced shares. There are rare survivors though, the most striking of them being Honda (+8.5%) actually gaining ground, breaking into the Top 10 and seeing ist share shoot up from 2.8% to 4.6%, as well as Volvo (+33%) doubling its share to 1%. DS (+98.3%) from a very low base, Ferrari (+12.5%) and Jeep (+3.1%) are the only other carmakers to record a gain in 2018. Nissan (-24.3%) and Toyota (-24.8%) resist ok in the Top 10 while below, Mitsubishi (-2.1%), Mini (-7.2%), Skoda (-13.5%) and Porsche (-15.7%) contain their losses. In contrast, it’s a race to oblivion for Infiniti (-85.2%), Smart (-66.7%), Opel (-53.1%) and Citroen (-45.9%).

The Honda Civic is the only model in the Top 20 to post a year-on-year gain.

The Fiat Egea (-23%) is the best-selling vehicle in Turkey for the third consecutive year, marking the 5th win by a Fiat nameplate in the past 7 years (add the Fiat Linea in 2012 and 2013). But it’s the Renault Megane (-28%) – sold at 93% in the sedan variant – that held the YTD top spot all the way until end-October while the Egea was propped up by a record 8.109 sales and 10.4% share in December, undoubtedly fleet-triggered, whereas it had fallen to just 587 sales in September. The podium is unchanged on 2017, with the the Renault Clio (-29%) staying put. The award of best performer goes without hesitation to the Honda Civic (+31%) up 12 spots to #4, the only nameplate in the Top 20 to register a year-on-year gain (and a double-digit one at that) and ranking #1 from August to October. The Toyota Corolla (-12%) is up 5 to #10, the Nissan Qashqai (-24%) is up 6 to #9 and the Dacia Duster (-24%) up 8 to #11. Alongside the Honda Civic, only 9 nameplates in the Top 100 post a gain in Turkey this year: the Peugeot 3008 (+26%), Nissan X-Trail (+33%), Volvo S60 (+91%), BMW X1 (+29%), Opel Grandland X (+353%), Mercedes X-Class (+477%), Volvo V40 (+16%), Seat Ateca (+35%) and Peugeot 5008 (+60%). The Skoda Karoq (#68) is the only 2018 launch managing a Top 100 finish.

Previous month: Turkey November 2018: Toyota, Nissan and Honda swim upstream in market down 42.3%

Previous year: Turkey 2017: Fiat Egea and Renault Megane top market down 2.8%

Two years ago: Turkey 2016: Fiat Egea already in the lead in record market

Full Year 2018 Top 42 All-brands and Top 315 All-models vs. Full Year 2017 figures below.

Full December 2018 Top 40 All-brands and Top 233 All-models below.