The Lebanese car market is doing well in 2010 with 25,565 cars sold in the first 9 months, a 5% increase on '09. Japanese cars account for 39.2% of total sales (down 15%), Korean cars for 30.8% (up 87%!) and European 23.3%. The Association of Automobile Importers in Lebanon released…
Observation of the streets of Muscat through YouTube videos, show clearly enough that the Toyota Yaris sedan dominates the Omani car market, ahead of the Toyota Corolla. Other successful models are the Hyundai Elantra, Kia Cerato, Toyota Land Cruiser and Kia Picanto. Please get in touch if you have any…
The latest official data I could get my hands on dates back to 2003 and was limited to Abu Dhabi. The Toyota Land Cruiser was leading the way then ahead of the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sunny, Nissan Patrol and Mitsubishi Lancer. Observation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai during my last…
Thanks to our friend Bart D at www.autoweek.nl, and www.autonews.com, we finally have up-to-date figures for the Canadian market, in reasonably good shape in 2010 at +1% in October (123,310 sales) and +7% Year-to-date with 1,330,658 registrations. The Ford F-Series is very impressive in #1 with a 24% growth over '09 at…
* Click on the title for many more street scenes! * Based on observation of the streets of Phnom Penh through YouTube videos, the Toyota Camry is in all likeliness the best-selling car in Cambodia, and could have been so for many years given the number of different generations still…
* Click on title for street scenes! * The observation of the streets of Colombo through YouTube videos shows a Sri Lankan market inspired by its neighbour India (Maruti Alto definitely in the Top 3), but with strong specificities: the Nissan Sunny seems to have been by far the best…
Thimphu street Observation of the streets of the capital Thimphu through YouTube videos indicate a Bhutanese market very similar to its neighbour India: out of 3,168 imported cars in 2009, 42% were Marutis and 31% Hyundais. The Maruti Alto, Hyundai Santro and Hyundai i10 look like the best-sellers in Bhutan.…
The Israeli market is very healthy over the first 10 months of 2010 at 176,684 registrations and +28%. Mazda is still the #1 manufacturer but its margin over #2 Hyundai has reduced dramatically: 25,808 sales vs. 24,974. The rankings by segment are extremely stable this year with the Mazda2, 3…
* Click on title for more pictures! * Observation of the streets of Yangon through YouTube videos bring to light a particular situation in the Myanmar car market: very high import taxes make new cars an out of reach prospect for most consumers, and in this context, the 1992 Toyota…
Toyota leads the car sales in Hong Kong with over 2,400 registrations during the first 6 months of 2010, a 63% increase over 2009. Models that seem to sell well include the Noah (at one stage declared the best-selling Toyota passenger car in HK), Wish, Camry (#1 in 2006 when…
Launched in February 09 (October for the Koup) and just #4 in 2009, the Kia Cerato Forte is the best-selling car in Singapore over the first 10 months 2010, when including the Koup sales. The Toyota Corolla Altis is #2 for the third year in a row, and the Hyundai…
In a very dynamic market (up 37% on '09 with 82,147 registrations), Toyota dominates at 32% market share, and places the Vios (aka Yaris sedan) in the lead with 1,502 sales in June, ahead of the Toyota Innova at 1,154. Mitsubishi is also very strong at 19% market share (one…
The Swiss car market is handling well in 2010 with +7% over the 1st half of the year and 143,046 registrations. Not surprisingly, the VW Golf is by far the best-selling model in the country, but its market share (4.2%) is much weaker than in Germany (8.2%) and Austria (5.2%).…
Steep 16% decline this month for the European car market with again all its powerhouse countries (Germany, France, Italy, UK and Spain) showing sharp drops. After a month of September artificially biased towards UK-strong cars, most models come back to their YTD market share levels. The VW Golf is back…
The German market is still in decline in October with 256,775 registrations and -20% vs. Oct 09, which is actually a little bit better than the year-to-date situation at -27% (2,423,627 sales). Well behind the VW Golf (8.2%), the Polo regains its #2 spot (3.2%) but the Mercedes C Class…