“We have to do something; we cannot wait to go to the emergency room. Growth registered on the import segment reflects the choice of Romanians in favor of more expensive cars,” Constantin Stroe, Vice President of Automobile Dacia and President of the Association of Romanian Automotive Manufacturers (ACAROM), told Business Standard. Sales of Automobile Dacia dropped by an annual 13.1 percent in the January-October 2008 period, to 67,772 units, while the new car market decreased 5.7 percent, to 243,475 units, according to data from the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA).
The President of the APIA, Ernest Popovici, said the recent evolution of car sales is merely one of the “first signs” of the crisis.
Alin Tapalaga, General Manager of Porsche Inter Auto, Porsche Romania’s retail division, said the relatively low drop in sales in this year’s first ten months is due to great results registered before the crisis. “The auto industry is a barometer of the economic situation, which reacts immediately to the population’s state of mind,” Tapalaga added.
