The vehicle transporting the new car market has taken a major downhill - since 2008 - with the driver still not knowing where to stop and the passengers not finding the answer to the crucial question: How and how to put end in the descent?
The comparative figures showing sales of new, saloon cars over the last seven decades show the heartbreaking picture of the car market. And it may be that in these seven years (with six consecutive years of crisis) there have been acquisitions, mergers and new imports from new car importers, however, it turns out that these moves were not a pill to the disease of recession either.
The non-granting of loans is a big problem
The problematic situation of the banks and the long path of recapitalization and restructuring followed by the Eurogroup almost in its entirety, the banking system does not allow lending, which is reflected in the total number of loans granted from the beginning of 2013 until today, which exceeds marginally 400.
At the same time, the banking policy will hardly change in the coming months, thus preparing the car market for a "heavy winter".
A bubble that burst or just the car market is paying the price of the financial crisis, is a question that will be answered when and if the market goes uphill again to see how big it will be.
The numbers of the crisis
In the first ten months of 2007, a total of 21.986 vehicles were sold, while in the corresponding ten months of 2008 the number was limited to 21.424 new cars.
The first strong signs of the crisis - however - appeared in the first ten months of the following year when only 13.727 cars were sold, while even worse were the sales results of January-October 2010, months in which only 12.388 cars were sold.
A marginal decline was recorded the following year in which 12.194 new, saloon cars were sold, while in the first ten months of 2012 only 9.687 cars were sold.
And many may have thought that 2012 was the worst year of crisis for Cyprus, however, 2013 proved that the recovery of Cyprus combined with the developments brought by the Eurogroup in March dragged car sales in the first ten months to just 5.961 vehicles.
Source: InBusiness