Second-hand dealers likely to benefit from falling demand for new cars

Car sales in the first five months were over 30% down from the same period of last year. A total of 158,000 new cars were sold by the end of May, 31.2% fewer than a year ago. According to Adam Kolodziejczyk, general manager of Ford Distribution Poland, sales in the whole of this year may be only 350,000. Car importers, however, have expressed a certain amount of optimism, with Opel and Renault dealers in particular saying they have noted some success from recent promotional campaigns. However, market analysts are more pessimistic, saying that any improvement in sales in May was the result of a seasonal surge in demand prior to the summer holidays. They say that car buyers are more interested in cheaper, used cars. This is a view supported by Edyta Wasiluk from market analyst Eurotax, who says that customers have become increasingly interested in second-hand cars over the past few months, which is not good news for companies selling new cars. (Puls Biznesu, p. 3) P.W.