According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance in Costa Rica, 5,835 new and used units came into the country in the first five months of the year, which represents a 16% drop compared to the same period in 2017.

See "Central America and the automotive market"

The sector's indicators show a deceleration in the last months, since the index of the cost of acquiring a vehicle, calculated by the National Institute of Statistics and Census, registered an interannual growth of 3.6% to March, while in the month May, the reported increase was just 0.24%. 

Miguel Gorrías, marketing manager of Nacional Automotriz, explained to Nacion.com that " ... the world industry is buoyant and international prices of cars are rising. The contraction is a local matter. 'In general, if you look at prices, analyze them and they tend to rise a little year after year because globally, the economy and the automotive industry are buoyant, so obviously the factories are taking advantage to raise prices, the slowdown is pointedly in Costa Rica'."

See also "Batteries for cars: From Mexico to Central America"

Regarding the current situation, Juan Ignacio Sansó, BMW sales manager, said that " ... 'It is normal that when the industry is down, importers lower their prices to offload the excess inventory they have'."

Source: Nacion.com

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