“The car market is on hold. Any extra for a car automatically means a higher cost, which reflects on market sales,” Laura Samson, Country Manager of Mio Technology, told Business Standard.

New car registrations dropped 2.4 percent, to 252,935 units in this year’s first ten months, according to data provided by the Directorate for Driver’s License and Vehicle Registration (DRPCIV).

Mio Technology is revising the 2008 sales target downward to 50,000 units from its initial 90,000 unit estimate, and targets a 50 percent market share by year-end. The company sold some 36,000 GPS devices on the local market in 2007, up 700 percent year-on-year.

The penetration rate of GPS units in Romania is 2 percent, compared to 80 percent in Western countries, according to Samson. She added that the profile of a GPS buyer is a 25-45-year-old car owner, 90 percent of which are male, and 80 percent with above-average income.