Turkey breaks auto sales record in 2011

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The Turkish automotive sector posted an all-time sales record in 2011 with nearly one million in passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales. Hürriyet photo

Turkey’s automotive sector broke its all-time record with the number of vehicles sold in 2011, but next year might not be as rosy if there is a slowdown in growth, the Automotive Distributors Foundation has said.

The foundation expects a 10 percent fall-back in 2012.

By reaching the nearly 1 million mark, the sector sold approximately 864,439 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles last year, marking a roughly 16.4 percent increase from the year before. The sector’s previous record had been 760,913 vehicles in 2010.

Sales could fall in 2012
Hayri Ece, general coordinator of the Automotive Distributors Foundation, said in a report that the automotive sector expected to only sell around 775,000 to 825,000 vehicles in 2012 due to the possibility of a slowdown in Turkey’s growth with the current European debt crisis, Anatolia news agency reported.

Even when looking at 2011 as a whole, the slowdown is evident. In the first quarter of 2011, there was a 76.6 percent increase in passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales, but this number dropped to roughly 37 percent in the second quarter and dwindled to 11.75 percent for the third quarter, the Automotive Distributors Foundation report said.

Consumers showed a preference for both diesel cars and vehicles with smaller motors. Diesel motor cars witnessed a 34 percent increase from 2010. Some 62 percent of the vehicles sold in 2011 had diesel motors, up from 54 percent a year earlier. Cars with smaller motors under 1600cc were also a popular choice. Some 89 percent of the vehicles sold had motors under 1600cc. In terms of model choice, consumers flocked to sedan type cars.