OREANDA-NEWS. February 02, 2011. The cherished dream to buy a new car had to be put off by many Moldovan residents in 2010 again. The purchasing capacity reduced significantly. Fortunately for automobile dealers, car sales didn’t stop completely. However, after a nice rise in 2008, when sales of new cars totaled 11.57 thousand cars and the same nice slump in 2009, when sales contracted more than twice in comparison with the previous year, automobile dealers still failed to achieve a positive dynamics in the market in 2010. The low purchasing capacity was aggravated by some devaluation of the local currency and by the lack of advantageous crediting offers.

4665 new cars were registered in Moldova in 2010, down 2.5 times in comparison with new car sales in the before-crisis year of 2008 (11.57 thousand cars) and 14.2% less than indicators of the year of 2009 (5.43 thousand cars). Most sales were registered in November and December – 988 cars sold. 37% of new cars sold in 2010 fell to the share of small A/B class (1.7 thousand), 21.37% - SUV (997 cars), middle C class – 16.4% (765 cars).
 
Despite the general sales reduction tendency, some automobile dealers did manage to achieve growth of sales of some types of cars. For example, sales of Suzuki grew 60.4%, Dacia – 46%, Toyota – 33.1%, Chevrolet –23.7%.

The top of sales (as to the number of cars sold) has been struggled for over the last few years by the Lada and Dacia brands. While the Russian Lada was the leader in the first half of 2010, by the end of the year Dacia evened the score and found itself in the top of sales leaders with 698 cars sold (46% more than in 2009). Sales of Lada cars in 2010 totaled 554 cars, down 11.9% from 2009. The top ten of best sold brands also includes Toyota (430 cars), Skoda (351), Сhevrolet (287), Mitsubishi (244), Hyundai (242), Mercedes-Benz (209), Ford (190) and VW (155).

The crisis was acutely felt in 2010 not only by the new cars market, but also by the second-hand car market. According to official data, 12.99 thousand cars aged 2-10 years were registered, down 31.2% against sales in 2009. According to results of the year, the secondary market ceded 4% of the market to the primary market (in terms of numbers).

Of course, slump in car sales was seen not only by Moldova. Most global car markets just “stood up from their knees” in 2010. According to data of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), sales of new cars in the European Union states reduced by 5.5% last year and totaled 13.36 million cars. The largest car markets of UK, Spain, Germany also decreased sales by 18-23%. At the same tine, sales increased for the first time over the last seven years in Japan – by 7.5%; after the fall in 2009, sales of cars in Russia saw the 30% growth. The American automobile market grew 11% in 2010 with 11.6 million cars sold. This has been the first annual growth after 4 years of contraction of the US automobile market. However, it is a quite modest result – before crisis, 16 million cars were sold a year in the USA.

As a whole, the global automobile market increased the number of cars sold in 2010 from 51 million to 68.5 million cars. China has remained the leader with car sales grown one third last year – to 18 million cars. As a result, the five largest automobile markets of the world are: China, US, Japan, Brazil, Germany.
 
According to restrained forecasts of specialists, car sales may grow 5-10% in 2011. However, recovery of large automobile markets will begin at least in 1-2 years. The tendency of automobile production consumption by developing countries – China, India, Brazil, Russia – will continue this year.

As for Moldova, the global trends are added by the local specificity which is unlikely to change this year. Automobile dealers, like representatives of many other kinds of business, stand up for normalization of the political stability in the country. Besides, starting from January 1, 2011 all prices are to be indicated in Moldova only in the local currency, the fact that creates certain inconveniences both for dealers and for purchasers, at least till they get used to that. Psychologically, the cost of a car in the amount of 10 thousand euros, for example, is taken easier than its MDL equivalent of 165 thousand leis. Experts believe that most potential buyers of cars given the growing prices for energy resources and oil products will postpone purchase till more stable times. Nevertheless, sales of new cars will be growing but probably at quite modest rates and indicators of 2011 will certainly exceed results of 2010 and 2009, that is, the market will resume growth, although a slow one.