Imports of motor vehicles older than 10 years jumped by 22.3% in August, as Western European importers pushed their old jalopies into Poland before a new restriction banning their import takes effect later this month, auto industry sources said.
Old car imports shot up to 9,539 units last month, with 10-year-old-plus vehicles accounting for 77.2% of all used car imports compared to only 40.6% in January, according to the latest monthly report by Samar, an auto market research company. This follows an eight-month-long increase in old clunkers' share of total used car imports.
On Aug. 1, Poland adopted a European Union regulation that banned the registration of cars without catalytic converters, thereby eliminating the import of vehicles produced more than a decade ago. Most European countries adopted the (EU) norm between 1992 and 1994, according to Wojciech Drzewiecki, Samar's president.
The regulation banning the import of Western clunkers takes effect on Sept. 21. Industry experts expect to see a substantial flood of cars crossing Poland's Western border in the next few weeks, just as in March, only days before the introduction of an excise tax on used cars went into effect.
The government imposed high excise tax rates on used cars last March in an attempt to stem the rising flow of vehicles from Western Europe. The move successfully slashed imports in all car-age categories, except the most undesired one - those older than 10 years.
"History repeats itself, and everyone will try to bring their cars in before the ban becomes law," said Mirosław Łaciok, the vice president of Laweta, an association of used car importers. "The peak will begin around Sept. 15."
Łaciok added, however, that the number of imports would be much less than in March, when the daily flow of vehicles at the western border exceeded the usual traffic by up to 10 times. He expects daily traffic to increase 10-15% during the peak week just before the regulation goes in effect.
The new ban won't alarm Polish car buyers as much as the March regulation, sources said, since the market is already partly saturated with old cars and Western European markets have been largely drained of aging bargains.
To prepare for the influx of clunkers later this month, customs forces are gearing up for the increased traffic.
Some 750 vehicles passed through Poland's busiest western border at Świecko each day during the March peak.
Traffic volume last week was about 20-30 cars a day, according to Mirosław Lechman, the head of the Świecko border crossing.
"So far, it's quiet, but I know from experience that the traffic increases just before regulations change," he said.
