Brazil in 2012: Fiat Celebrates Early For Fear That VW Will up! Them

Video o.k. for network TV in Brazil, but NSFW in certain jurisdictions. Do not click if naked derrieres offend you. The numbers for the first eleven months of the year have been consolidated. The first fortnight of December has been basically more of the same. It's now quasi-official: Fiat is the biggest pig in the sty for the eleventh time in a row. They already have an ad out celebrating the fact. Last year the Italians waited until January to commemorate. This year they had no such compunctions. Curious is the theme they chose to celebrate their victory. Don't think a green-eyed spermatozoon, masturbation and bodily functions would be GM's choice to celebrate their market dominance in stodgy America. Oh, those racy Italians! According to a conversation I had with a senior Fiat suit last week, maybe this has to do with the fact that they are feeling the heat from VW and think they need to rub their leadership of the market in (due to VW being leader for 50 years and the Gol having been the most sold car for over 25 years, many Brazilians still believe VW is the leader in our market). The Fiat grandee expects that next year VW will launch in the up! in Brazil. This car will be priced lower than the Gol and could give the Germans the lead in Brazil again after a decade's hiatus. Fiat will have nothing new to fight the up!. Moreover, VW has recently hired the Fiat veteran who was basically responsible for car pricing in Brazil. This guy has his finger all over the market's pulse and raised and lowered Fiat's prices until he found the sweet spots. As other makers nowadays set their prices after Fiat's lead (VWs start 5 to 10 percent over Fiat and Renault-Nissan low-balls Fiat 5 to 10 percent), the Italians worry (the exec confided to me) that VW now has the brains to regain for themselves the ability to establish pricing in Brazil. Relative to the market, Fiat, Nissan and Kia made the most waves this year, according to Brazilian car specialist site webmotors. Fiat and Nissan in a big way and Kia in a negative way. Despite increased competition and capacity constraints Fiat gained a little over 1 percent on the market by selling 11 percent more cars year-on-year. Nissan was the company to gain the most in sales (72 percent) while Kia lost almost 47 percent. Kia has not fallen out of favor with consumers but they suffered the most at the hands of government policy. Parent Hyundai also suffered. So much so that, relative to last year, they were overcome by their Japanese nemeses Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Due to Nissan's rise, Peugeot was shown the door of the top 10. To put all of this in perspective, Brazil is the world's fourth largest car market. Behind China, the US and Japan, but bigger than Germany, the UK or India. Top 10 Brands, Brazil Position (in 2012) Brand Sales Jan-Nov 2011 Percentage Sales Jan-Nov 2012 Percentage Change (%) 1 Fiat 684,970 22.12 763,952 23.21 1.08 2 Volkswagen 633,876 20.47 697,782 21.20 0.72 3 Chevrolet 571,232 18.45 580,210 17.63 -0.82 4 Ford 285,620 9.22 292.,811 8.89 -0.33 5 Renault 172,722 5.58 219,342 6.67 1.08 6 Honda 86,948 2.81 122,699 3.73 0.92 7 Toyota 86,913 2.81 99,097 3.01 0.20 8 Nissan 55,624 1.80 95,608 2.90 1.11 9 Hyundai 104,110 3.36 91,544 2.78 -0.58 10 Citroën 82,236 2.66 67,846 2.06 -0.59 from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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