After experiencing five consecutive years in positive territory, sales dropped last year to 37,802 from 40,683 in 2018, amid tough competition.
Of the total saloon car sales, 12,601 or 33.3% were new and 25,201 or 66.7% were used cars, versus 32.3% and 67.7% respectively in 2018.
Toyota has the biggest market share with 12.8%, despite dropping from 13.8% the previous year. Nissan follows with 9.6% also down from 11.7%
Regarding sales of new car models, in 2019 the Toyota Yaris came first with 517 sales, followed by Nissan’s Qashqai with 507 and the Kia Stonic with 494.
The Volkswagen T-ROC, Toyota C-HR, KIA Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, KIA Ceed, Ford Fiesta and KIA Rio were also in the top 10 list.
As far as the used car market is concerned, buyers showed a preference for luxury cars with Mercedes models making up 19.4% of all sales, an increase of 2.6%.
Mazda was second with a market share of 15.9% dropping from 17.7% the previous year. Toyota, Nissan and BMW models complete the top five used car list for 2019.
The Mazda Demio with 2,345 sales was the best-selling used car model for 2019, followed by the Mercedes CLA-Class with 1,237, and the Nissan Note with 1,157 sales.
According to the latest data, the Pilakoutas Group is the top-selling car dealer with 3123 sales in 2019 followed by Unicars (2128) and A. Loutsios (2030).
The top five list is completed by Dickran Ouzounian and Michaels Automotive groups.
In comments to the Financial Mirror, Alexis Anninos, the Secretary of the new car importers association SEMO, called on the government to push ahead with the scrappage incentive plan which has been on the table for more than a year now.
“People are holding back from buying a new car as they are waiting for the scrappage scheme to benefit from cash incentives. However, long delays and changes to the scheme, has caused uncertainty among consumers, putting the market on ice,” said Anninos.
Source: Financial Mirror
