Car sales hit historic low - Decline by about 40 percent

New car sales in Serbia dropped about 40 percent in the period January-July 2012 against the same period last year, said President of the Serbian Association of Vehicle Importers Milos Petrovic, who also noted that the automobile market in our country had hit a "historic low".

Only 15,000 vehicles were sold in the given period, down from about 20,000 last year, Petrovic told Tanjug, adding that the best-selling cars in our market at the moment were Skoda vehicles.

On the other hand, luxury car sales in Serbia are stable, the same as every year.

- When we talk about luxury cars, the sales have been stable for years. Here we have no significant rises and falls - whoever had money still has it, and whoever didn't have it now has it even less - said Petrovic.

He pointed out that the decline was even more drastic if the 2012 sales were compared to, for example, the 2008 sales, when about 36,000 vehicles had been sold.

- We do not expect the market to grow, the sales can only go down - Petrovic stressed.

Drawing a comparison between this year's sales figures and those from previous years, he noted that only about 31,000 vehicles had been sold in 2011, whereas the total number of cars to be sold in 2012 was expected to range between 22,000 and 23,000.

For example, a total of about 60,000 vehicles were sold in 2008, meaning that the car sales this year will be twice as small as in 2008, Petrovic explained.

- It is interesting that the Volkswagen Group currently records a stable growth in our market, and parameters show that the situation is similar in the whole region - said Petrovic.

The best-selling cars in Serbia are Skoda vehicles (part of the Volkswagen Group), with 2,000 cars sold in the first seven months of this year, followed by Volkswagen cars.

The third-ranked is Fiat, which sold about 1,600 vehicles during the first seven months of this year.