Gulf Cooperation Council Full Year 2018: Toyota Land Cruiser teases Hilux for #1

The Toyota Hilux remains the most popular nameplate in the GCC in 2018.

Consult 15 years of Gulf Cooperation Council Historical Data here.

The Gulf Cooperation Council is an economic union including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. New car sales in the region continue their freefall into hell in 2018 at -18.2% to 934.918 units, after losing 21% in 2016, and 19% in 2017. Sales in the GCC are now at half of their 2015 level of 1.8 million units. This year’s decline isn’t helped by the decision by all German carmakers to stop reporting sales in the region, yet even when removing them from the equation the 2018 drop is still a ghastly -15.2%. Toyota (-17.5%) manages to improve its share to 34% from 33.7% in 2017, meaning more than 1 in every 3 new vehicles sold in the GCC has a Toyota badge. Nissan (-3.7%) resists very well to snap the overall #2 spot off Hyundai (-29.1%) in great difficulty as is its sister brand Kia (-30.3%). Instead, Mitsubishi (+16.8%) stuns with the largest gain in the Top 13 to gain two spots on 2017 and land at #4. Mazda (+11.9%) is the only other Top 10 carmaker in positive while Chevrolet (-11.7%) and Lexus (-15.4%) manage to contain their losses under the market rate but Isuzu (-20.9%) and Ford (-20.6%) don’t. Below, Chinese MG (+452.8%) is by far the outstanding performer as it spreads its wings across the Middle-East,  with Ram (+66.5%), Jaguar (+30.8%), Land Rover (+18%), Acura (+9%) and Jeep (+3.5%) also resulting excellent results.

Model-wise, the Toyota Hilux (-13.9%) is once again the most popular in GCC despite not winning any country this year and even managing to improve its market share to 5.7%, but it is getting serious heat from the Toyota Land Cruiser (-5.9%) now just 1.264 units below. The Toyota Camry (-18.8%) and Nissan Patrol (-2.4%) keep the Top 4 identical to 2017, but the Nissan Sunny (+17.3%) is up 6 spots to brilliantly break into the Top 5, knocking the Toyota Corolla (-22.6%) and Prado (-28.4%) down while the Hyundai Accent (-26.7%) stays at #7. The Mitsubishi Pajero (+51.8%) delivers the largest gain in the Top 20 and is up 7 ranks to break into the Top 10 at #9. Other great performers near the top include the Mitsubishi Attrage (+941.6%), Mazda CX-9 (+123.1%), Chevrolet Spark (+55.5%), Nissan Kicks (+47.2%), Honda Civic (+25.2%) and Isuzu D-Max (+11.9%). The Toyota Rush (#53) is the best-selling newcomer for 2018, followed at a distance by the MG RX5 (#97), Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (#105), Hyundai Kona (#137), Jaguar E-Pace (#176), Infiniti QX30 (#182) and Volvo XC40 (#222).

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Previous year: Gulf Cooperation Council Full Year 2017: Toyota Hilux holds onto lead

Two years ago: Gulf Cooperation Council Full Year 2016: Toyota Hilux reigns supreme

Full Year 2018 Top 45 All-brands and Top 50 models vs. Full Year 2017 figures below.