New car registrations up 23 percent in 2018

New car registrations in Romania increased by 23.06 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, reaching a total of 130,919 vehicles. Second-hand vehicle registrations recorded a total of 473,616, an 8.99 percent decrease compared to the year before, according to ACAROM data.

Dacia was the car maker with the most new cars registered – a total of 36,873 units, up 23 percent compared to 2017. On the second place was Skoda, with 11,148 vehicles (up 22.3 percent), followed by Renault with 10,629 units (up 37.7 percent), Volkswagen with 10,060 vehicles (up 3.2 percent) and Ford with 9,861 units (up 18.9 percent).

In the used car category, the leader is Volkswagen with 119,260 vehicles, down by 12.67 percent compared to 2017. On the second place is Opel with 48,960 units, down by 23.5 percent, followed by BMW with 45,998 cars, down by only 0.8 percent, and Audi with 44,659, down by 4.58 percent.

Big numbers in the second-hand cars category were recorded for Ford with 42,800 units, down by 16.1 percent, Mercedes-Benz with 24,933 cars, down by 5.65 percent, Skoda with 21,645 units, up by 2.6 percent and Renault with 20,117 cars, down by 12.07 percent.

In total, 604,535 cars were registered last year, down by 3.2 percent compared to 2017 when the number reached 626,812 units. But there were more new and fewer used cars, which means that the market tends to regulate itself and the growing purchase power will convince people to buy new cars instead of old ones.

Interestingly, in 2018, 12 Aston Martin cars were registered in Romania (6 new and 6 second hand), double the number registered in 2017. There were also 35 Ferraris (12 new and 23 used), compared to 22 the year before. But Maserati is the leader in expensive cars with a total of 81 (28 new and 53 second-hand), down from 89 in 2017, while Bentley counted 74 cars (24 new and 50 used) up from 53 in 2017.