Turkish car sales decreased by 11%
As the Turkish Government increased special consumption tax on passenger cars by 7-9% in order to narrow demand, November 2004 passenger car sales decreased to 30'000 down by %11 month-on-month; however, for the first 11 months of this year passenger car sales totaled 401'000 showing a 130% increase on year-on-year basis. In the first 11 months of 2003, 175'000 autos have been sold. The Automotive Manufacturers Association reported 30'547 passenger car sales in November, signifying a 10.9% decline on month-on-month basis. October passenger car sales were reported as 34'000 units. The increase in SCT has undoubtedly played an explicit role in this decline. Passenger car imports in November dropped to 20'463 units from 22'115 units showing a 7.5% decrease on a month-on-month basis. Additionally, 9-mth 2004 domestic passenger car sales and imported car sales respectively increased by 111.7% and 136.5% year-on-year to 121'420 units and 279'593 units. Thus, the market share for imported cars in total passenger car sales reached 70% in the first 11 months of this year compared to a 67% market share for the same period in 2003. Automotive sales, on the other hand, dropped to 52'202 units from 57'155 units representing an 8.7% decline on a month-on-month basis. For the 11-mth period, the whole automotive industry sales recorded a 110.3% year-on-year increase in 2004 and rose to 667'000 from 317'000 in 2003.