2010 was another bad year for Cyprus car sales

Data for December have confirmed that 2010 was another bad year for car sales, with total registrations of motor vehicles falling by 12.5% to 44,025 in 2010, from 50,291 in 2009.
However, this was not quite as bad as the previous year, when a drop of 25.7% was recorded.
Moreover, new cars fared rather better than second-hand cars, with a fall of 4.0% to 22,391, compared with a drop of 19.7% to 21,364 for secondhand cars.

It was also a good year for anyone selling buses, with the new transport system seeing the number of bus registrations more than doubling from 134 in 2009 to 350 in 2010.
All other categories showed a decline, however.
Registrations of private saloon cars decreased by 13.3% to 31,423 from 36,252 in 2009.
Goods conveyance vehicles decreased by 4.4% to 6,690 in 2010 from 6,998 in 2009, while light goods vehicles were almost stable at 5,586 in 2010 compared with 5,584 in 2009.
Heavy goods vehicles decreased by 17.3% to 858 in January-December 2010 from 1,038 in 2009.
Road tractors (units of trailers) decreased by 34.6% to 246 in 2010 from 376 in 2009.
Mopeds of less than 50cc decreased by 67.7% to 457 in January-December 2010 compared with 1,416 in January-December 2009.
Mechanised cycles over 50cc decreased by 10.1% to 3,060 in 2010. compared with 3,405 in January-December 2009.

Fiona Mullen
Director, Sapienta Economics Ltd