Thus, the market share of such cars widened to almost 28%. In May, the second month of the clunkers program, their percentage climbed toward 38%.
The strong upward trend of this segment comes as offers have come to include smaller capacity engines, but with performances similar to high capacity ones.
Hatchback cars also posted strong growth this year. Over 40% of cars sold in the first five months were hatchback versions and their sales rose by 46% in the same interval to 12,354 units.
“Romanian clients still focus on sedan models, but we need to look at another two details. On the one hand, Dacia came up with a new range of small-engine models, and on the other hand in the first five months 75% of car sales were represented by company acquisitions,” said Nicolae Sorescu, head of the car unit of Radacini group, which owns dealers of Opel, Citroen, Mazda, Suzuki and Volkswagen brands.
The domestic market’s downsizing trend was also noticed by operational leasing companies. Shane Dowling, general manager of ALD Automotive, the second largest operational leasing company in Romania, said the average purchase price of cars part of the company’s fleet dropped to EUR13,400 VAT not included in 2014, from EUR13,700 in 2013.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)