Credit crunch and fuel costs fail to dent soaring car sales

NEITHER looming recession nor fuel costs have lowered the registration of private saloon cars, which climbed 28.5 per cent in September, the Statistics Department said yesterday.

According to the figures, private saloon car registrations in September rose to 5,090 from 3,962 in the same month last year.

New car registrations increased 16.1 per cent to 2,283 from 1,966, while used car registrations went up 40 per cent to 2,807 from 1,996 in September 2007.

Between January and September this year, private saloon car registrations rose 3.7 per cent to 38,837 compared to 37,466 in September last year.

Of the total, 17,749 or 45.7 per cent were new, and 21,088 or 54.3 per cent were used.

The total number of newly-registered cars in the first nine months of the year increased 6.7 per cent to 53,887, from 50,515 in the first nine months of 2007.

Earlier this week, traffic experts said that by the end of this year there would be more than one car for every man woman and child in the government-controlled part of Cyprus.

In 2007 there was a total of 688,532 cars registered in Cyprus, compared to 649,574 in 2006, an increase of 33.1 per cent, or 48,387 new cars.

By the end of 2008, there is expected to be 750,000 cars registered in Cyprus.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.