Romania's new car registrations down 82% in 5 years of crisis

The registrations of new car in Romania recorded a dramatic drop of 82 percent in the last 5 years, while the number of imported used cars saw a comeback in 2008, according to an analysis posted Friday at local Auto.ro site. Thus, the new car registrations fell to just 46,667 units in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 252,937 units in the same period of 2008, the year when the economic crisis approached Romania. The market for new cars registered in Romania recorded an annual average decline of 29 percent in the last five year, as a result of the population's low purchasing power, a fluctuating car pollution tax and restricted access to financing. According to the cited source, the imports of used cars saw a return to the 2008 level, with as many as 186,997 cars registered in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 205,092 such cars in the same period of 2008. The imports of used cars had reached critically low levels in 2011, when only 75,697 units were registered. Evolution is spectacular for the last two years, when there was an increase of 147 percent, due to a "migration" of Romanians from the segment of new cars to imported second-hand cars, most of them from Germany.