Argentina February 2020: Chevrolet Onix (+29.9%) scores 2nd ever win in market down -31.7%

The Chevrolet Onix is the best-selling vehicle in Argentina in February.

New vehicle sales in Argentina skid down -31.7% year-on-year in February to just 27.204 registrations – the weakest February volume since 2004 – bringing the year-to-date tally down -27.8% to  71.921. An old and somewhat questionable theory of the Argentine automotive market is that annual volumes can be predicted by multiplying the February figure by 12. If that is the case, it would give us a 2020 tally at 326.448 units, a catastrophic -29% fall on the 459.592 sales of 2019 and the slowest annual volume in 16 years, since the 288.527 sales of 2004.

Meanwhile Volkswagen (-43%) manages to retain the brand’s pole position despite losing almost half its February 2019 volume, but in actual fact the entire podium is sliding down faster than the market with Toyota (-34.3%) and Renault (-53%) in perdition also. Only Jeep (-24.6%), Chevrolet (-26.9%) and Fiat (-29.7%) manage to lose slightly less ground and gain smidges of market share year-on-year. Only 5 brands are in positive in Argentina this month, and only one holds more than 0.1% market share: Ram up 96.2% to #14 with 0.6%. The others are Dodge (+200%), Mitsubishi (+200%), Haval (+27.3%) and Alfa Romeo (+12.5%).

Model-wise, the Chevrolet Onix (+29.9%) takes advantage of now including both hatch and sedan variants (the Prisma name has been discontinued in Argentina) to end 17 consecutive months of reign by the Toyota Hilux (-25.3%) and score its 2nd ever monthly win in Argentina after January 2018. Counting two variants under one nameplate means the Onix has serious chances of adding Argentina to its list of Latin American annual wins in 2020. The VW Gol (-10.5%) holds strong at #3, distancing a stretch of freefalling nameplates: the Toyota Etios (-40.5%), Fiat Cronos (-38.3%), Ford Ka (-55.8%), Peugeot 208 (-43.5%) and Renault Kwid (-43%). The VW T-Cross repeats at #9, by far the most popular recent launch above the Toyota C-HR (#84). The Ram 1500 (+80%), Fiat Toro (+56.9%), Nissan Frontier (+31.3%), Chevrolet Cruze (+28%) and Nissan Kicks (+1.7%) are the only additional gainers in the Top 50.

Previous month: Argentina January 2020: Jeep (+7.3%), VW Gol (+28.8%) resist in smallest market decline in 17 months (-25.3%)

One year ago: Argentina February 2020: Renault takes the lead in market down -41.8%

Full February 2020 Top 50 All-brands and Top 228 All-models below.