From Malaysian eyes
CRUISING past a group of Malaysian journalists at the Lima Convention Centre is a brand new National Police of Peru‘s Ssangyong Rexton W.
The 3.2-litre midsize SUV is one of the many Rexton Ws being deployed by the Peruvian police for the 2016 Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting this week.
The Rexton W actually bests Hyundai’s Santa Fe in a competition to deliver a fleet of 2,108 patrol vehicles to the Peruvian police.
An agreement between the governments of South Korea and Peru in December last year stipulated that one of the former’s carmakers would supply 2,908 special-purpose vehicles to the South American country’s police.
The contract was awarded in two phases. Hyundai won Phase One and delivered 800 Santa Fe units. However, in the larger Phase Two competition a few months ago, the nod went to the Rexton W.
The Peruvian fleet has petrolpowered engines, although the Rexton family’s mainstay in most markets has been its rugged diesel mills. The Rexton W’s special features include bullet proof windows, licence-plate recognition camera and high-performance search lights.
Ssangyong is not known to be a best-selling brand in most markets it is present (although about 10 years ago there was a bit of sales frenzy of the Rexton in Malaysia). But the Peruvian police fleet order has offered Ssangyong a big break to make it big in the SUV segment there.
There is another South Korean SUV that has been a common sight to us while travelling around Lima for our Apec coverage: Kia Sportage.
In our brief stint in this capital that is full of history and culture so far, we have seen more Sportage than any other SUVs, including those from the US and China.
The all-new Sportage seems to have a slight sales edge over sibling Hyundai Tucson, although the Hyundai brand is relatively more popular when it comes to overall sales in Peru.
Based on the latest overall sales, Kia was ranked third with 17,595 new vehicles sold from January to October this year versus Hyundai’s total sales of 21,270 new vehicles.
The top selling marque for the 10 months? Yes, it’s Toyota with 22,825 cars leaving the dealers’ lots.
There were seven Asian brands in the top 10 list including Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Mazda. The three non-Asians were Renault, Volkswagen and Chevrolet.
According to data released by the Automotive Association of Peru, 140,536 new vehicles were sold and registered in the JanuaryOctober period. This was 3.3 per cent less than in the same period last year.
Thank you for reading.
ZURAIMI ABDULLAH