used cars

Used car sales via dealers rose nearly 20% in the first half of 2010, and if this trend maintains, Romania's overall used car market will reach at the end of 2010 the level hit in 2008, officials with BDT, one of Romania’s major players on the local auto retail market, said Tuesday.

Romania’s decision to hike the value added tax (VAT) to 24%, from 19%, would determine many people interested in purchasing cars to choose the second-hand car market, where prices will not be altered, said website autovit.ro manager Attila Okany.

Romania’s black market for used cars reached nearly EUR250 million in the first quarter of 2010 and non-cashed VAT from used cars deals amounts to EUR47 million, said Nicusor Sorescu, sales manager of auto group Radacini Motors, importer of General Motors brands.

Some 40% of the 212,000 used cars sold in Romania in 2009 are older than ten years, and 95% of used car businesses are not subject to taxes, Ernest Popovici, head of Romania’s Association of Car Producers and Importers, or APIA, told a press conference Thursday.

Romanian used-cars registrations rose 115.8% in the first eleven months to 256,173 units from 114,049 units in the corresponding period a year earlier, Interior Ministry data showed Thursday.