The automotive year ends with a market quite different from how it began. The devaluation of December 2023 caused a sharp rise in prices that, throughout 2024, were adjusted through the discounts made by factories and dealerships.
Also reappeared financinggiven the decline in the inflation rate, and this helped boost demand and compensate for the disappearance of opportunistic buyers who no longer find benefit for the consumption due to the exchange gap.
Another change that is perceived is the increase in the supply of models, after the elimination of import restrictions.
This last factor, in a more stable macro context, allowed the return of small segment models, such as the Fiat Mobi and the Renault Kwid. There was also the arrival of Hyundai HB20.
Without the possibility of importing and with a shortage of dollars, the brands bet on surviving the last years of Alberto Fernández’s government with the sale of higher segment models that allow better profitability.
There was also a recovery in the purchasing power of some sectors of society that, with a dollar that stopped its uncontrolled rise, improved in dollars.
Until two months ago, the amount of minimum salaries needed to buy the most affordable 0km car on the market (at that time it was the Fiat Mobi) required 71 salaries.
With the arrival of the Kwid, that relationship improved a little, since the French brand’s vehicle is worth a little more than a million less and the minimum vital and mobile wage rose in October. That is, the improvement is not so much due to a higher income, but rather due to a more accessible offer.
Now five fewer salaries are required than two months ago.
The SMVM is $271,571, with the last adjustment in October, while the Renault model is worth $17,900,000. The account gives, exactly65.9 salaries.
Measured in dollars, the Kwid costs US$15,700, the second highest value in the region, except for Bolivia, which sells for more than US$18,000.
Another type of salary could be taken (the average salary of the economy or the industrial salary), but the comparison is more difficult, so it is more representative to always do it with the SMVM.
More so when compared to other countries where the way of measuring the average salary differs. With the minimum wage there is less confusion.
Source: Ambito
