Jan-July 07 New Car Sales in Bulgaria Up 23.8% Y/Y

SOFIA (Bulgaria), August 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian automobile dealers sold 27,781 new passenger cars in the first seven months of 2007, 23.8% more than they sold a year earlier, local car importers' union UIAB said on Tuesday.

New truck sales through July increased to 1,508 from 885 in the same period of 2006. Mercedes-Benz was the most popular brand, selling 540 trucks, a 2.5-fold increase year-on-year.

Sales of new buses rose in the first seven months rose to 92 from 55 in the year-ago period.

Top 10 car makes by seven-month sales in Bulgaria:

	Jan-July'07	Jan-July'06	Jan-July'07 mkt share (pct)
Toyota	3,164	2,213	11.39
Ford	2,768	2,316	9.96
Peugeot	2,372	2,641	8.54
Opel	2,208	1,930	7.95
Volkswagen	2,113	1,427	7.61
Citroen	1,819	1,672	6.55
Skoda	1793	1,716	6.45
Renault	1,787	1,161	6.43
Dacia	1,736	956	6.25
Chevrolet	1,510	870	5.44

Sales of new cars in Bulgaria grew by 27.5% to 42,625 vehicles last year. The Black Sea country of 7.7 million people has no production of motor vehicles.