New car registrations rise again in Hungary

The number of new passenger car registrations has grown in Hungary in May compared to the same month of 2011. This was the 5th month in a row when a year-on-year increase was recorded. The momentum in Suzuki’s sales is unbroken. The carmaker sold five times as many new cars than in the base period, propelling Suzuki to the second place in the ranking of the biggest sellers last month, Datahouse data showed.

A total of 4,581 new passenger cars were registered in Hungary in May 2012, nearly 20% more than in the same month of 2011. This was the fifth consecutive month when growth was recorded in annual terms.

Looking at the longer-term trend, however, we have little reason to cheer, the financial website portfolio.hu notes. Amidst the 2008 global financial crisis Hungary’s new car registrations took a serious beating and as there was no car scrappage incentive scheme (or wreck premium program) in effect, not even a temporary recovery occurred. While well above 10,000 new cars were sold every month before the crisis, the monthly prints stabilized at around 3,000-4,000 units in the past two years.

Suzuki continued to march ahead and has become the second-largest seller on the Hungarian market in May. It sold nearly five times as many new cars last month (466) than a year earlier (94). The most popular model was the Swift (367). The biggest seller was Opel, boosting its sales by 5% year-on-year, and Volkswagen came in third.

Carmakers in the luxury category saw their sales rocket in May: the number of cars at Audi rose by 27%, there was a 47% jump at Volvo, BMW sold 26% more cars than a year earlier and in Mercedes dealerships, they waved a cheerful goodbye to 37% more happy Mercedes owners than in May 2011. And one Aston Martin was also registered in Hungary in May.