Meanwhile the government has pumped more than EUR430 million into the ‘Rabla’ cash-for-clunkers program devised to encourage purchasing of new cars and the scrapping of old cars, since its start in 2005. What the program actually did was take the old Dacia cars off the streets and replace them with old imported cars.
More than 1.34 million second-hand cars have entered Romania since its European Union accession, even though the first registration tax was modified almost every year precisely to contain imports. On the other hand, only a little more than one million new cars have been sold in the country ever since, according to the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA).
In comparison, only 313,000 used cars were imported in the seven years prior to the EU accession (2000 though 2006), while sales of new cars stood at almost 950,000 units.
While the difference in new cars between the two seven-year periods is 92,000, the volume of used cars imported surged by more than one million units in 2007-2013 compared with 2000-2006. Imports of second-hand cars will go up by more than 30% to 225,000 this year, while new car sales will drop by some 10% to 63,000 according to APIA estimates.
“One can see a higher number of second hand car inflows in the counties with a lower economic activity. What worries us is that the need for mobility is covered by very old cars,” said Brent Valmar, APIA vice-president, who is also general manager of Porsche Romania, the largest importer on the Romanian auto market.
“Which is why the measures taken to refresh the national car stock must be doubled.”
The only cars with a real impact on the economy are the 0 to 4 years old cars, whose registration volume fell to 13.5% of total imports, from almost 19% in 2012, while the cars older than nine years go to repair shops that are not inspected and go untaxed, thus generating no economic benefit.
Taking into account a EUR5,000 average price per second-hand car and EUR15,000 per new car, the Romanian consumers will spend more than EUR1.1 billion on second-hand cars and only EUR950 million on new cars in 2013.
The highest level of used car imports was recorded in 2008 when more than 300,000 of them entered Romania. This year’s projected level of 225,000 is the second highest in thirteen years.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)