In Croatia, car sales fell by 14 percent in 2010

In December, 3,205 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia, which is 195 vehicles or 5.7 percent less than in November, and 45 cars or 1.4 percent more than in December of last year, according to data from the agency Promocija plus, which relies on the records of the Ministry of the Interior regarding new registrations.

A total of 38,587 new passenger vehicles were sold in Croatia in 2010, što je 14,1 posto ili za 6.331 vozila manje nego 2009. godini. By brand, the best-selling in December was Volkswagen with 392 cars sold, followed by Škoda with 341 vehicles sold, while Ford was third with 289 cars sold. The ranking for 2010 is somewhat different – Opel is first with 4,697 vehicles sold and a market share of 12.17 percent, Volkswagen is second with 4,249 cars sold što je udjel od 11,01 posto, and Renault, with 3,328 cars, took third place and has a market share of 8.62 percent in the Croatian market. Chevrolet has a market share of 8.25 percent, having sold 3,182 cars in 2010, and Peugeot holds fifth place in sales with 2,736 vehicles što je udjel od 7,09 posto. Other popular brands in Croatia include Škoda (2,314 cars sold in 2010), Hyundai (2,220), Ford (2,150), Citroen (1,909), and Kia (1,244).

According to preliminary data from the agency Promocija plus, during 2010, 802 new cars with the BMW badge, 782 Audis, and 705 Mercedes were registered in Croatia. Among the brands from the upper price range, for example, Porsche had 30 new cars sold last year, Lexus had 16 vehicles, Jaguar had 14, Aston Martin had four, and Maserati had two sold units. In terms of models, the leading one is the Opel Astra with 2,241 vehicles sold in 2010, followed by the Volkswagen Polo (1,821) and Opel Corsa (1,462). Other models with higher sales include the Volkswagen Golf (1,304), Renault Megane (1,282), Škoda Octavia (1,163), Renault Clio (967), Peugeot 308 (868), and Ford Fiesta (860). Of all the new cars sold last year, 62.7 percent were gasoline vehicles, and 37.3 percent were diesel vehicles. By regions, the most cars were sold in the Zagreb region – 14,591 or about 37.81 percent. (H)