Moreover, of the about 40 car brands sold in Romania only eight saw a decline in the first quarter.
Imported used car market saw a significant increase in the first quarter, too, doubling to 130,000 units compared with the year-ago period, 52,000 of which registered in March alone. The surge in the number of imported used cars comes after the environmental stamp duty was dropped on February 1 and buying a car from Western Europe no longer carries any additional tax.
The two brands with a local presence, Dacia and Ford are the leaders of the registration ranking in the first half. Dacia’s registrations went up 11% to 5,800 cars, even though the number of registrations dropped 20% to 1,557 in March. Ford registrations doubled to more than 1,000 units in March, while its rival Volkswagen saw fewer than 600 new cars registered last month, an increase of 16%. Ford ranks second in the first quarter with more than 2,100 new cars registered, up 63% on the year-ago period.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)