The February sales numbers of new cars in Holland are in.
And they are pretty amazing and quite relevant to the introduction of the Micra in Canada.
It is not the total number. 33,625 new cars were sold over here, a 5.4% rise compared with February 2013.
It is the 5 best selling models that may surprise you. In order:
2276 Suzuki Altos. The cheapest and one of the smallest cars on sale. Much smaller than the Micra.
1866 Kia Picantos. Slightly bigger than the Alto, it is still a lot smaller than the Micra.
1434 Hyundai I10s. Same platform as the Kia. A good car - we won one in a lottery. But smaller than the Micra.
1289 Volkswagen Golfs. The new Golf gives Volkswagen a sales boost. Bigger than the Micra, and over twice as expensive.
1113 Volkswagen Up!s. Again a car that is noticeably smaller than the Micra.
Not listed but selling in reasonable volumes are the Citroën C1, Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo triplets, Renault Twingo, Dacia Sandero and the Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo Up! clones.
All these cars, with the exception of the Golf, are subcompacts fighting for the bottom end of the price range. Together the subcompacts make up for more than half of all the car sales. And all of them, maybe except the Dacia, are considerably smaller than the Micra!
Now the Micra enters the Canadian market with no competition whatsoever in price range.
If the Canadian market would respond in the same way as ours it would outsell all other cars combined...!
It won't because the markets are different, and the tax regime is incomparably different, and a car this cheap and small falls outside the average Canadian's buying radar range. (I'm assuming this)
Still, I wonder what will happen. Will it boom, or not? Either way, it is a miracle.
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