February is the third month in a row when new car registrations increased. The last time that happened was in early 2012.
As new car registrations increased, imports of used cars decreased and are now in their fourth month of decline in a row. Registrations of imported second-hand cars fell 7% to a little more than 15,100 units in February. Even so, the used car market remains almost five times larger than the new car market.
“As more and more customers who bought a car in the past few years realized buying a used car is not always a good thing, given the many such vehicles with rolled-back mileage, some people chose a new car,” said Nicolae Sorescu, head of the auto division of the Radacini group, which owns Opel, Chevrolet, Mazda, Citroen, Suzuki and VW dealers.
The stakes this year are riding on the start of the clunkers program as soon as possible. The Romanian Environmental Fund Administration has already made available the amended version of the program for debate by the public and the program will most likely start at the end of the month or early in April.
“There are positive signals on the market. We hope they will continue once the clunkers program starts. This year’s program could be the best ever considering the new rules such as the issuing of electronic vouchers, Sorescu said.
“This change alone does away with the possibility to forge the vouchers. There have been many instances of fake vouchers in the past.”
The main news about this year’s clunkers program is that the age of cars that can be scrapped was lowered and that the beneficiaries would no longer get vouchers in hand. A total of 20,000 vouchers will be available as last year, each of which with a face value of 6,500 lei (about EUR1,500).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)