Post-sale services catch up with car market

The rise in the number of vehicles registered in Romania has led to a spectacular rise in the number of authorised servicing centres, which has now reached over 3,500 nationally, according to statistics of Registrul Auto Roman (The Romanian Vehicle Registry). The most significant development was related to captive servicing centres, which belong to both importers and Romanian vehicle producers. They were the first to notice the market’s potential, which is now seeing an above average increase in both the number of cars and post-sales support demand, as in the entire Eastern Europe. The European market of post-sale services has been evaluated the market research company Datamonitor at over 180 million euros, with an annual growth potential of 3.9 million euros until 2010. Growth, which is primarily fuelled by the constant rise in the number of vehicles, is slowing down both due to the increased life span of automotive parts, which has lead to fewer replacements, as well as more competitive prices.