Car market executive: Eastern markets rebound below expectations

The Romanian car market will revert to the 2007-2008 volumesafter 2014, when the European market will also top 13.5 millioncars, estimates Allan Rushforth, vice-president with Hyundai MotorEurope.
Hyundai and Dacia were the car brands that posted the highest salesincreases on European markets, both in 2009, and in the first halfof this year, with the two brands benefiting from the launch of oldcar scrappage schemes (Rabla), which allowed them to widen theirmarket shares.
Just like Dacia, which launched the Duster SUV as soon as carscrappage schemes ended, Hyundai also presented the ix35 crossover.In Romania, the cheapest ix35 starts from 18,590 euros VATincluded, while a top full-option Duster version reaches 18,716euros.
"We do not see Dacia Duster as a rival for ix35. Europe is not asingle country, and there implicitly are a lot of client types,"Rushforth said.
The South Korean brand's registrations rose by 4.3% in the firstnine months of this year, to over 274,600 cars, according to ACEAstatistics.
"The recovery rate of Eastern markets will be weaker than we wouldlike. East-European governments have trouble cutting the deficitand costs (...)", said Rushforth.