In a bad year for car sales in Romania, December 2020 was a good month, the industry association said Monday.
Romanians bought almost 16,000 new cars in December, a 16% year on year rise.
The good news in the last weeks of the year showed renewed consumer confidence in a year that the industry slumped, hurt by the lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic.
Overall, more than new 126,00 vehicles were sold in Romania in 2020, some 22% less than 2019 when Romanians purchased about 161,500 units, the Romanian Automobile Manufacturers Association said.
The pandemic also shrunk the second-hand market by 9% with 405,000 vehicles sold and registered in 2020. That’s more than three times the number of new cars that were bought.
Buyers registered 34,174 second-hand cars in December, a drop of just 5% from 2019.
Brand leader was again Dacia which sold about 40,000 new vehicles, still, a fifth less than 2019, followed by Skoda which sold 10,300, a drop of 16% from the previous year.
French carmaker Renault sold more than 10,200 units, a fourth less than 2019, and German automobile company Volkswagen was 11% down on 2019 with 9,400 new cars registered.
While sales were predictably down last year, Romania’s two carmakers, had spurts of production after lockdown rules were eased.
In September, they manufactured about 58,000 units, up 56% year on year, the association said.
