One in twenty Bucharest residents expected to buy a car this year

Over a third of the total cars sold in Romania in the first 10 months of this year, i.e. 258,000 units, were purchased by Bucharest residents, which roughly means that one in every twenty inhabitants acquired a car in 2007. Total car sales over the first 10 months of the year rose by 23%, and approached the 300,000-unit mark, with more than 41,000 commercial vehicles. If the average growth rate of the market continues, more than 350,000 cars will be sold by the end of the year. In October, car dealers in the Capital sold 10,053 units, which accounted for more than a third of overall nationwide sales (29,347 vehicles). The volume of vehicles sold rose 10% in October compared with the same time last year, with a little over 9,000 vehicles being registered. “This is a natural phenomenon. This has to do with the Capital City’s economic power, and its share of the total sales will start to go down when the average income approaches 500 euros, the average income level for a client looking for a new car,” said Radu Cristian, commercial manager of Trust Motors, importer of Peugeot on the Romanian market.