Thailand International Motor Expo 2009 Apparent Success

The Thailand International Motor Expo 2009 came to a close on Sunday, and the final sales results are in. A grand total of 25,220 new car bookings were made at the Expo, which is 10,000 more than event organisers had forecast. This could be taken as some indication that the economic situation is improving. Or it could just mean that impulse buying is rampant.

Regardless, it is interesting to see the shakedown of the final sales results. We reported earlier on the first day's results, and now we can share the final results complete with some comments on what it means for the industry in Thailand, if anything.

Without further ado here are the results:

Wow. First thing to notice immediately is the massive 7,230 vehicles that Toyota sold in the twelve days. That's almost 3,000 more than second place Honda! Of course, Toyota has a much broader vehicle line-up and truck sales are included, but this is still a massive gap.

The big news though, is the fact that Proton is in 6th place, ahead of Nissan, Chevrolet, and Hyundai. Clearly there is a market in Thailand for cars that offer value in the budget end of the market, and this is clearly Proton's strong suite.

Everything else is probably as you might expect. Mazda is probably among the most pleased with the results. Remember, Mazda and Ford have almost identical models in each segment, and share engines and platforms across the range. Mazda2 = Ford Fiesta, Mazda3 = Ford Focus etc., and yet Ford is over 2,000 units behind Mazda.

And then there is DFM and Chery! I find it hard to believe that there are so many people willing to part with their cash for such rubbish.

Still, another Expo has ended, and in what has been a shockingly bad year for the auto industry as a whole, this has helped end the year on a high note. Hopefully things will continue in the right direction in the new year.

More information on the Expo is available on the official website, and the source of the results posted above are available here.