MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Car sales plummet in Argentina

The less expensive brand-new units sell for at least US$ 20,000, a price the market is not validating

The business of selling cars in Argentina contracted 36.6% in the last 12 months as the South American country faces considerably high prices in US dollars coupled with rampant inflation and unemployment, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

Only 25,294 new vehicles were registered, a 36.6% drop from the same month of last year, according to the Association of Automotive Dealers of the Argentine Republic (ACARA). A total of 39,875 units had been registered in March 2023.

So far in 2024, 84,261 new units were registered, a 30.2% loss compared to the same period in 2023, when 120,744 new vehicles took to the streets.

“Beyond the fact that this March ends with two working days less, these figures indicate that we clearly have a new market, of supply, in which dealers must go in search of customers who have had a deterioration in their purchasing power,” ACARA President Sebastián Beato said.

In 2024 Argentina, the less expensive car models sell for no less than the equivalent of US$ 20,000, it was explained. The market is not validating these prices despite the dealers' efforts to offer credit lines and discounts.

The Motorcycle Division of ACARA reported that the number of units registered during March 2024 was 27,449, a year-on-year decrease of 43.3% for a total of 91,715 units this year or 26.7% less than in the same period of 2023.

This month the brand that sold the most units was Toyota (6,068 units), followed by Volkswagen (3,476); Fiat (3,193), Peugeot (2,232); Renault (2,209), and Ford (1,913).

“There are some aspects that are positive and give us the guideline that the trend may begin to change in the short term,” Beato stressed.

He also pointed out that “exchange rate stability and the appearance of convenient financing lines by the terminals and some banks” are necessary to reactivate the sector's activity. “These are very relevant issues for an activity such as ours which, if they are consolidated, we are going to have months of reactivation and also of growth in registrations and in the activity of our premises.”