The surge in car sales during the first two weeks of March shocked car importers and car dealerships. Sales have increased by 54.8 percent compared with same period last year, but if we compare those numbers with 2008, then the market has fallen with 5.1 percent.
More precisely, 8 857 cars were sold during the first half of March and this number for the same period of last year was 5 722, but in the beginning of March of 2008, 9 332 people were bought themselves a brand new car. Despite the surprising results importers are reserved towards the market and are expecting the report at the end of the month, so they can draw a more complete picture of market movement.
According to the importers the leading sold cars are Toyota, which sold 1,319 cars, VW with 1 176 cars, Opel with 711, Suzuki and Skoda with 518 and 501 respectively. Most impressive in last year surge in sales is Land Rover with 150%, BMW with 136.6%, Toyota with 124%, Volvo with 117.6% and Citroen with 115.3%. Accordingly, the five companies that reported the largest decline in sales are Ford with 39,3%, Subaru with 38,5%, Saab with 33,3%, Mazda to 19.3% and Honda with 10.9%.
Another fact which caused surprise is the sale of luxury cars. For two weeks 281 people have bought an Audi, 229 people bought Mercedes, 194 people bought BMW, 74 bought Volvo, 52 bought Chrysler, 24 bought Lexus, 18 bought Porsche, 8 bought Saab, 2 bought Bentley, 1 bought Aston Martin, 1 bought a Hummer and one person bought a Jaguar.
According to experts in the industry the surprising increase in sales is due to the spread of rumors that the VAT will increase with 2% and because a tax will be imposed to luxury cars worth more than €17 000. As a result importers and upper class people want to buy cars while still the VAT is low and without having to pay the "luxury" tax.
The comparison between the car sales during the first two weeks of March in 2010 and in 2008 was necessary because two years ago the market started falling due to the economic crisis. So if we compare sales in those two years we will see that 24 out of the 35 car importing companies have reported decline in sales between 2.6% and 100%.
Based on article in Imerisiya newspaper
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