At the end of 2023, the Fiat Crono confirmed for the third consecutive year as the best-selling model in Argentina: in the month of December, 1,109 zero kilometer Chronos were patented, bringing the total sales to 2023 47,580 unitsquite far from model number two, the Peugeot 208 (36,454 units patented in 2023) and also by the car manufacturer Stellantis.
One step down was the quiet trade dispute over pickup trucks that automakers had during the second half of the year. Toyota and Volkswagen: It was a competition between hiluxwho ultimately finished third in the standings with 30,694 units patented e VW Amarokwho placed fourth with 29,782 units.
The offer between Toyota and VW has been part of the chatter of several dealers throughout the year, with scathing comments and shenanigans from both sides, such as football classic.
In that competition the third pick-up in contention could do very little, the FordRangerRest fifth in the 2023 patent ranking, with 24,241 units. Just in the middle of this year Ford crossed the commercial hole which meant abandoning the previous version of the Ranger and launching production of the new model, which had cost 660 million dollars and was practically the only significant investment by the local automotive industry during the four years of Alberto Fernández’s government.
The patent data was released Friday evening, the last business day of the year, from Automotive Dealers Association (FACE).
In December the patents totaled 18,498 units (6.2% less than the same month the previous year), but they sold throughout the year 449,438 zero kilometer vehicles. The figure lies halfway of the records of ten years ago, when 900,000 cars were sold per year, but it is higher than that of a year ago (408,000 units) and, above all, it is preparing to be much higher than what dealers expect to sell over the next year.
Sebastián Beato, president of ACARA, said that hopefully by 2024 a drop in sales of at least 25%“Now we see a market of 340,000 patents by 2024, although we may have to adjust that number again in the coming months,” said the entrepreneur.
One of the keys can be traced back to the sales of December: despite having comfortably led the ranking for the whole year, during this month the Fiat Crono ranked fourth, after a price increase that it was not accompanied by sales.
For example, the most expensive version of this model produced in Córdoba, the GSE Presicion CVT, started from a list price of 10.3 million pesos in October a $18.9 million in December: an 83% jump in just two months.
In part, this increase is due to the fact that until October several models had “captured” not to fall into the first scale of internal taxesthe so-called “luxury tax”: car manufacturers increased the prices of other models and versions and they delayed the increase of its more expensive versions up to the limit before the first scale of the tax, which around October was around eight million pesos.
Once the AFIP, again during the previous government, modified this scale in November, many models Suddenly they went up to 40%, to the limit of the new internal fiscal limit.
The first scale of this tax came into force two months ago (which is formally 20% but which affects the tax accumulation of 25% off the retail price), is applied starting from a sales price between 14.7 and 14.9 million pesos.
In December the escalation of zero kilometer prices accelerated after the 55% devaluation of the peso and the price lists of car manufacturers increased again for the second time in the month. With these increases we reached the situation that a model like the Cronos, locally manufactured and in the B or “medium small” category, began to have versions that cost the equivalent of 18,500 “blue” dollars.
The same goes for the second best-selling model of the year, the Peugeot 208 produced in El Palomar and also by the car company Stellantis. This car which also competes in Category B today has all its versions in between 17 and 22.5 million pesoswhich is to say its equivalent in thousands of “blue” dollars. (closed Friday at $1,025 on sale).
Until now, this first scale of domestic taxes has not been changed by the government of Javier Milei, although there are rumors among the terminals and car dealerships that they could be eliminated in the first days of January. At the moment there is no official information on this topic.
Source: Clarin
