Vintage American car in Cuba. Picture by Walter Lo Cascio. All rights reserved. The Cuban car market structure is a fascinating testimony of the country's last 60 years history. Its famous 1950's American cars (60,000 are still in circulation), relics of the pre-revolutionary period, are now outnumbered by over 100,000 Ladas,…
The Austrian car market is growing by 9% year-on-year in November with 28,024 registrations. Behind the VW Golf, a tad weak at 4.8%, and the Hyundai i30, 2nd again at 3%, the VW Sharan now fully enjoys its renewal with an outstanding 3rd position at 832 sales and 3% share!…
* Click on title for street scenes and video! * The Nicaraguan car market is pretty easy to read as 2 cars stand out by far: the Toyota Hilux, probably the best-selling car in Nicaragua, and the Toyota Yaris Sedan following not far behind. Other popular cars in the country…
* Click on title for street scenes and videos! * As in neighbouring Dominican Republic, Haitians seem to be fond of Nissan pick-ups, with the Nissan Frontier really successful. However its seems the Ford Ranger has taken the lead in this troubled year 2010 in Haiti. Pick-ups are a great…
Videos of the streets of San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, reveal that in all likeliness the Toyota Hilux is the best selling car in the country. Salvadoreans are very fond of pick-ups: the Mazda BT-50, Mitsubishi L200 and Nissan Frontier are also very popular. Other successful models…
Toyota Prado in Cotonou, Benin 2010 * Click on title for more street scenes/videos with Beninese rap music! * Relatively developed market in Benin with the Toyota Hilux and Prado in all likeliness dominating the new car sales. Other successful models include the Honda CR-V, Hyundai Accent, Nissan Frontier, Toyota…
The Spanish car market is down 26% year-on-year in November at 64,515 registrations, but still up 6% year-to-date. No surprises at #1, the Seat Ibiza is still the best selling car in Spain at 3.7% this month. The Nissan Qashqai's strong performance at #2 with 2,093 sales and 3.2% enables…
In a very stable market (+2% year-on-year), Skoda delivers a 1-2-3 in November: the Skoda Octavia reaches a very solid 16.2% share (vs. 15.4% YTD) whereas the Skoda Fabia slips back below 10% at 8.8%, and the Superb climbs back onto the podium with 3.1%. The Ford Focus is #4…
In this blog I normally focus on best performances and don't dwell on the weak ones, but this is such shocking news that it had to be the main headline: the Tana Nano only found 509 new owners in the whole of India last month... This is very bad news…
October is up an astounding 246% year-on-year in Turkey with 47,859 registrations, the 10 months total being now up 22% at 360,262 units. The Renault Symbol is #1 again this month and stays above 6% market share. Provided it continues at that rate, it will pass the Hyundai Accent in…
Hyundai Avante In November, the Hyundai Avante (Elantra) holds the pole position in South Korea for the 4th month in a row, even though it's slowing down slightly at 12.5% market share. The Sonata resists in 2nd at 10.4% ahead of the Kia Morning (Picanto) at 6.6%, whereas the Kia K5…
Even though the Toyota Hilux is still #1 over 11 months 2010 at 2,046 sales, the Hyundai Tucson iX (aka ix35) delivers an outstanding performance over October/November 2010 with 789 units sold, ahead of the Hyundai Accent (540), the Hilux coming in 3rd over the period at 397 sales. Full…
Nissan Altima If the Top 3 is stable in November in the USA, the rest of the ranking reveals its lot of surprises. The trucks have an excellent month: the F-Series is #1 at +26%, Silverado #2 at +16% and Ram #6 at +86%. The Nissan Altima is this month's…
The Toyota Hilux comfortably leads the Panama car sales year-to-September 2010 with 1,925 registrations. However, looking at the Last 3 Months ranking (L3M), two new Korean SUVs are gearing up beautifully and could be a threat to the Toyota's throne in 2011. The Hyundai Tucson IX (aka ix35) is already…
The Guatemalan car market is a relatively difficult one to approach as it seems to be quite fragmented. However, 3 models should stand out in the rankings: the Toyota Yaris Sedan, Toyota Hilux and Chevrolet Aveo. Other strong sellers in Guatemala are the Mazda3, VW Polo, Mitsubishi Lancer, Hyundai Santa…