Car dealers expect peak in June

Car sales rose further in May against previous months, hitting a level of around 10,800 units, down almost 20% from the same period of last year, according to the statistical data provided by car market players. Overall, car sales reached a level of around 37,400 cars in the first five months of this year, 35% lower than in the January-May 2009 interval. May figures were particularly due to the old car scrappage scheme, as almost each client buying a new car does this by using value tickets. Moreover, despite the austerity measures the Government has recently announced, the impact has been minimum over car sales. In the opinion of Alin Tapalaga, general manager of Porsche Inter Auto (PIA), May and June will be the best months of this year in terms of deliveries of new cars, amid the scrappage scheme. As regards orders, they will go down in the summer holiday months, and starting September chances of them reverting to the same level are slim, even though the scrappage scheme will come to almost 200,000 tickets, worth more than 900 euros each.