The bulletproofing business is booming.

Last year nearly 3,000 cars were armour-plated in Mexico.

The world’s second-largest market, up from 2,200 in 2013.

Most customers prefer to put protective glass and armoured plates on their own motors.

Rather than buy a purpose-built bulletproof car.

Installation takes over a month and costs up to $55,000.

But for Mexico City’s ultra-wealthy and other wary motorists the peace of mind is invaluable.

The country’s murder rate is smashing old records.

The number armouring their cars is set to rise by a further 15% this year.

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Bulletproof Cars Dealing Business

Sales in Mexico correlate closely with the number of murders in the country.

Not so in Brazil, the world’s largest market by far.

Since 2002, sales of armoured cars have risen fourfold to over 15,000 last year.

While the murder rate has ticked up only gently.

It may be that Brazil’s elite have an exaggerated sense of the risk of crime.

Three-quarters of sales are in São Paulo state.

Most of those are in the capital.

Where the murder rate has declined by 90% over the past 20 years.

Yet in 2016 only 7% of Paulistanos considered their city safe to live in.

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Bulletproof Cars Dealing Business

Some suggest that Brazilians confront a different type of crime from Mexicans.

São Paulo state has a rate of robbery more than twice as high as Mexico City’s.

Its inhabitants therefore have a greater need for a bulletproof car that can repel an armed roadside bandit.

Mexican criminals usually carry heavier weapons than Brazilian thugs do.

The “Type IV” armour which repels bullets from guns like the ak-47.

Costs three times as much as Brazilian armour.

And adds 30% to a car’s weight, obliging owners to replace the brakes every six months.

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Bulletproof Cars Dealing Business

That may point to another explanation.

Only Mexicans who really need armour plating fork out.

Whereas in São Paulo the rich view it as another status symbol.

Brazilian buyers want to “show that they have power and money”, says Marcelo Latorre Christiansen.

Head of the Brazilian Armour Association, an industry group.

A businessman’s armoured car is a message to envious onlookers that, unlike them.

He leads a life worth saving at all costs.

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Bulletproof Cars Dealing Business

Improving technology may change that calculation.

Diamond Glass’s panes are 22mm thick, half what was needed a decade ago.

Firms are making lightweight armour that does not weigh cars down.

Such advances will reduce prices.

Making armour affordable for ever more motorists, whether they need it or not.