Convertible car demand in the first quarter of this year soared by 400%, to almost 110 units, compared with the 27 cars delivered in the similar period of last year.
During 2006, according to the statistical data provided by the Association of Car Makers and Importers (APIA), almost 300 open-topped cars were sold.
The overall growth rate of the car market in the first quarter of this year stood at 19.4%, from 4.3%, the increase posted in the first quarter of last year, with a total number of 70,192 vehicles (passenger cars and commercial vehicles) sold.
The new generation of coup?-cabrio (CC) models was in demand on the Romanian car market particularly owing to the versatility feature offered by metallic retractable roof that can easily turn the car from coup? to cabrio. The best-selling CC in the first quarter of 2007 was VW Eos with 61 units.
The new Peugeot 207 CC, produced on the small-class platform of the French carmaker, is to be launched this May, while the new Ford Focus CC presented in the Geneva auto show in 2006 will be launched in the second half of this year.
In the first quarter, the weakest performer in terms of sales, according to APIA data, was the Audi A4 Cabrio, with just one unit delivered. Neither Porsche, nor Mercedes did any better.
What the situation of the luxury convertibles category points to is the fact that for the time being despite their penchant for luxury cars, Romanian consumers still prefer fixed-roof cars.
Cars of a much lower price segment did not do any better, either.
Though in Romania there is not such a large diversity on the segment of soft-top convertible cars as in the segment of hardtop convertibles, demand was much bigger for the former segment in the first quarter of the year. The offer for the time being includes only two models, Audi TT and Saab 93, but it is about to increase in the near future as the representatives of Autoitalia, the importer of Alfa Romeo brand, state they are in talks to bring the Spider model in Romania.
Car sales on the Romanian market last year reached a total of 297,162 units, an increase of 15.8% from the 256,414 units that were sold in 2005, taking the market to an estimated value of 3.5 billion euros.
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