Totalcar – Magazin – The new car market fell and the list leader was replaced by car buyers

• July was quite poor on the Hungarian new car market, as only 2 percent more cars received license plates than a year earlier.
• In June, the pace was even ten times higher.
• There was another change in the brand ranking in terms of monthly sales, based on the seven-month data, Suzuki takes the lead.

The Hungarian new car market ended July with a massive slowdown: 8,524 cars were registered, which is 182 cars – 2.2 percent – more than last July. However, the growth means a massive slowdown, as in June the annual expansion was 24 percent, and in the first seven months of the year the car market grew by almost 11 percent. The former means 11,724 and the latter 63,331 cars.

There was a third

Despite the half-yearly double-digit increase, the pre-epidemic level is still a long way off, in the first seven months of 2019, almost 90,000 new cars were put on the market. In this period, roughly one third of the Hungarian new car market is still missing. The annual increase can be primarily explained by the fact that last year, due to exceptionally high inflation, households postponed major investments, such as buying a car. This year’s new car inflation, which shows an acceleration, also worsens the picture. In January and February – in an annual comparison – they were 1.3-1.3 percent more expensive than a year earlier, but in March they were 2.5 percent, in April 2.7 percent, in May 4.7 percent, and in June 5.7 percent, according to KSH data. (The statistics on car price increases in July will not be published until the following week.)

Whose third is it?

July brought not only change, but also a change of place in the ranking of brands. Toyota won the month with 1,141 units sold, Suzuki was second, and Volkswagen was third with 939 and 671 cars. June was won by Volkswagen, and in previous months Toyota and Suzuki took turns.

The weekly aggregated data gives a more accurate picture of the market share of the brands.

• With 9,522 new cars put on the market, Suzuki, the leader, dominates more than 13 percent of the Hungarian new car market.
• The second is Toyota: with 8,652 cars, its share is 12 percent.
• With the sale of 5,980 units, Skoda has a market share of more than 8 percent this year.

The first three brands therefore account for a third of the entire market. Looking at the seven-month sales, Volkswagen, Kia, Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Nissan and Mercedes were also in the top ten. The latter put 2,949-5,547 new cars on the market, so their share varied between 4.1 and 7.7 percent.