Car registrations in the first eleven months fell by almost 17% from the year-ago period, to 61,600 units, according to the statistics of the Driver License and Vehicle Registration Department.
The slowdown of the government-backed clunkers program in November caused the most serious decline in the number of registrations this year, 45%, to 5,700 cars.
The previous worst, 42%, had been registered in August. If the same trend maintains in December, the number of cars registered this year will not exceed 70,000, an almost 80% decline compared with 2007, the best year for Romanian car dealers.
“Companies rush to buy fleets at the end of the year and have the cars invoiced in 2012, while individual customers bought cars until December 10 to be able to use the clunker program vouchers,” said Vlad Ionescu, marketing manager of Ford dealer BDT in Bucharest. “After that date, customers are unlikely to show any interest, considering most of them are waiting for the next clunkers program to start, which no one knows anything about, though.”
The brands with the highest increases this year are Jeep, up 900% on the year-ago period to more than 120 cars; Jaguar, which went from 30 to 91 cars registered; while Bentley saw seven cars sold in 2012 from only one in 2011.
Rising demand prompted Porsche Inter Auto, the retail unit of Porsche Holding in Romania to open the first official Bentley showroom at its center in Pipera (northern Bucharest) next to Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini in 2013.
The brands with the most serious declines were Maserati, Lancia and Alfa Romeo, and volume brands.
The number of Dacia cars registered in January-November fell by almost 30%, to almost 15,000 units. Moreover, Dacia witnessed one of its worst declines ever, by almost 60% to 1,400 cars in November. Renault, too, witnessed over 60% decline to 380 new cars registered last month from 954 in November 2011.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)
Highest increases in the first 11 months of 2012
|
Rank
|
Brand
|
Car registrations (units)
|
Trend (%)
|
|
1
|
Jeep
|
121
|
908
|
|
2
|
Bentley
|
7
|
600
|
|
3
|
Jaguar
|
91
|
203
|
|
4
|
Infiniti
|
24
|
100
|
|
5
|
Rolls Royce
|
2
|
100
|
Source: Driver License and Vehicle Registration Department
Worst declines in the first 11 months of 2012
|
Rank
|
Brand
|
Car registrations (units)
|
Trend (%)
|
|
1
|
Lotus
|
1
|
-66.7
|
|
2
|
Maserati
|
4
|
-66.7
|
|
3
|
Lancia
|
23
|
-54.9
|
|
4
|
Seat
|
572
|
-48.3
|
|
5
|
Alfa Romeo
|
105
|
-46.4
|
Source: Driver License and Vehicle Registration Department
