How we've outrun Hungary in terms of car sales in the past 10 years

Romanian car sales are 50% higher than Hungary's, after the power balance was completely different ten years ago, namely two cars sold in Hungary for each purchased Romanian car, according to the Automotive Importers Associations of the two countries.
Car sales in the first nine months of this year reached 101,770 units on the Romanian market, down 54% from a year ago, while the Hungarian market in the same interval reached a volume of 64,672 units. In 2000, 133,000 cars were sold in Hungary, while a little more than 66,000 units were sold on the domestic market.
Per capita, however, Hungarians are still buying more cars, given that Romania has 22 million inhabitants, while Hungary has a little above ten million.
The ongoing decline of the Hungarian car market pushed many dealers to sell their business or close down, while domestically dealers have first given up showrooms located on ground floor of blocks of apartments, where they were paying rent, and not integrated centres.
While domestically dealers are still display the price of new cars for sale in euros, though deals are sealed in RON, in Hungary the prices are shown in forints. Thus, whereas on the domestic market the RON decline against the euro has allowed dealers to offer bigger discounts, things are different in Hungary.
In western Romania there are Hungarian customers coming to Romanian dealers, and many Romanians going to car centres in Hungary. Closeness to Romania and the generally low prices of car servicing centres have lured even Romanian clients. As the Hungarian market posted an even steeper decline than the Romanian one in certain months, many car dealers across the border have offered discounts of as much as 50% to raise cash.
Once Romania joined the EU, car sales hit a peak in 2007, of over 315,000 units, while Hungary reached the peak of 208,437 units in 2003, ahead of integration. Also, while the Romanian market has been supported by the implementation of an old car scrappage scheme since 2005, Hungary is still discussing such a programme.
Romania can be said to "match" Hungary in terms of car plants. Domestically, there is Dacia in Mioveni and Ford in Craiova, while Hungary has Suzuki and Audi. The third plant in Hungary will be built by Mercedes-Benz. The company had also considered Romania as a location, but its main shortcomings were the lack of infrastructure and the only 300 km of highway.
In 2006, Romania for the first time in history overcame Hungary in terms of GDP, reaching a level of 97bn euros, compared with Hungary's 89bn-euro GDP.