Car sales hold up in Europe
Irish Sun
Saturday 17th May, 2008
New car registrations are up in Europe.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Associationhas reported a growth in new car registrations despite the US financial crisis and further increases in fuel prices.
New car registrations in April jumped 9.6% to 1.42 million vehicles, which made up for a 9.5% drop in March.
In the first four months of this year, registrations rose 1%, almost entirely thanks to growth in the new EU markets in Eastern Europe.
While there was a recovery in registrations in Germany, with Volkswagen and BMW posting profits, Italy weakened due to the poor economic outlook and an end to government incentives for drivers to scrap older cars.
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| By Andras, 06-07-08, 08:32 AM |
Car sales hold up in EuropeI visited home (Romania) from the US recently, and I was surprised to see so many new cars on the roads. Everybody is buying cars (although the infrastructure -wide roads, highways - is not there for them resulting in a traffic jam). I guess we are going to repeat the mistakes of the West instead of learning from them. We could improve on our very good public transport system and on our extensive railroads instead of embracing cars. Maybe the price of oil will help in choosing the more sensible way. |
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