Alfred Suter, general manager of GM Southeast Europe, the Romanian importer of Opel and Chevrolet cars, believes that the sports models offered by a carmaker improve the brand's image, in spite of the low level of volumes sold.
"We intend to boost the sales of our sports models, but no brand like Lamborghini sells in large volumes. These cars target a small number of people. GM's portfolio includes models such as the Opel GT, Corvette and the new Camaro, which all complement the GM portfolio of models and improve the brand's image," explained Alfred Suter.
Even though many of the supersports brands are not officially represented in Romania, many customers buy these cars from Western European countries.
"Romanian customers buy Corvettes from Western Europe or directly from the United States," said Suter.
Sales of sports cars on the domestic market have increased a great deal over the last few years, with most carmakers launching new models on this market segment. For example, Audi recently launched the supersports R8 model and the A5 coupe.
The top model available from GM is the Chevrolet Corvette, which, at present, is not officially imported into Romania. The official representative of Cadillac, the luxury brand of GM and of the Corvette models will be Radacini Motors, which is currently an Opel and Chevrolet dealer. The latest GM sports model launched in Romania is the Opel GT.
In the first six months, the best-selling Chevrolet model in Romania was the small class sedan Aveo - one of Logan's main competitors on the domestic market, whose sales stood at 4,215 units, an increase of 161% against the same time last year.
Opel's sales reached 7,811 units in the first half of 2007. The brand's bestseller proved to be the Astra Classic, which sold 3,835 units, up 69% and the new Astra, which sold 1,467 units.
"Next year will be a quieter year for General Motors, as there won't be as many new modes to launch. The most important model scheduled for launch next year is the Opel Vectra. The official launch will take place in May and the car will become available on the market in the second half of the year," added Suter.
Romania is the seventh most important market in Europe for Chevrolet in terms of volume and the third in Eastern Europe, after Russia and Ukraine.
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