Weltauto goes to Suceava

Porsche Romania, the importer of the Audi, Porsche, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen brands, has decided to expand its Weltauto project to the rest of the country. The Weltauto project consists in sales of second hand cars. This move comes one year after the importer opened its first project in the Capital and is due to the higher demand for after sales services. The second hand car market in Romania was until recently unstructured and disorganised. This is why individual imports led to the creation of a negative image of the trade in used vehicles, Weltauto representatives explained. “This has started to change only lately, in view of Romania”s accession to the European Union, when, according to the new legislation, it will be possible to register any vehicle,” explained Franz Fruehwirth, Porsche Romania general manager. Weltauto has been officially present on the Romanian market since last autumn, after its operations within Porsche Romania had been rather experimental in nature. At the time the company estimated to sell 500 units. About one year on from the inauguration of the pilot-project in Bucharest, a second centre has been located in Suceava and is operated by Auto Mitric, a Volkswagen dealer. The centre takes up 2,500 square metres, where at least 25 vehicles can be displayed at any time, according to company officials. This autumn another major used car dealer, AAA Auto, opened its first centre in Western Bucharest, with announced investment plans amounting to 20 million euros over the next few years. ZF