APIA: Auto market to drop by more than 55% in 2009

“Even since the beginning of 2009, APIA had an extremely pessimistic forecast for this year: the return of the market to its 2003 level, to some 140,000 sold vehicles. Unfortunately, the figures registered at the end of the first half of 2009 make this scenario more probable. We have a bit over 70,000 cars, with a total market of some 79,000 vehicles,” an APIA press release writes.

According to the representatives of importers and dealers, the estimate for 2009 forwarded a few months ago, of 150,000 units “is a bit overly optimistic, due to the media attack regarding the economic crisis, so, a 130,000 threshold would be more realistic.” Total deliveries fell by an annual 55.2 percent in this first half of 2009, to 79,060 units. The total auto market (cars, commercial vehicles, and buses) dropped 61.6 percent in June compared to last year’s same month, to 13,966 units. Compared to May, the entire auto market decreased 7.7 percent. The association said that the situation would have probably been “even worse” without the car trade-in program, through which over 11,500 cars were sold, the equivalent of some 16 percent of sales registered since the beginning of this year.