Balearics suffers major fall in 2nd hand car sales

SECOND hand car sales dropped by 12.5 percent in the Balearics last year, the second highest drop in the country, the National Dealerships Association (Ganvam)said yesterday.

In 2009, said Ganvam, there were 32'790 second hand cars sold in the Islands compared to 37'480 in 2008. Only in Valencia, where there was a downturn of 16.2 percent, were results worse.

The figures for the Balearics were greater than the decline in sales experienced at a national level which was registered at 5.1 percent. Across the country, 1.4 million second hand cars were sold last year. Nationally, the combined volume of both new and second hand car sales volumes was apparently better than had been expected. The “new” car purchase sector, said Ganvam has been buoyed by the Central Government's Plan 2000E which provides up to 2'000 euros in subsidies.

The Association confirmed that second hand car sales fell in all regions of the country last year. Other areas which suffered significant losses were the Canary Islands where volume was down by -10.9 percent, Andalucia (-7.8%), Cantabria (-5.9%) and Catalonia (-5.1%). At the other end of the scale, La Rioja had the least drop in sales volume, down by only -0.4 percent.