Utility car sales fall by fifth in Oct

Sales of light utility vehicles were down by a fifth year-on-year to 5,006
units, and passenger car sales rose by 7 percent in October against an
average 10 percent growth in the previous months, SDA said.

Experts attribute the October swing to the global financial crisis but
predict a growth for the full year 2008.

Sales of passenger cars in Jan to Oct added 10 percent to 121,973 units,
and sales of light utility vehicles put on 6 percent to 50,978 vehicles.

SDA secretary Pavel Tunkl said that the car fleet renewal remains very low
in the Czech Republic, around 3 percent of the total number of registered
passenger cars a year as opposed to some 10 percent in advanced countries.

Skoda remained the top-selling car both in the category of passenger and
light utility vehicles. In the former category it experienced a 7-percent
fall to 37,728 units and Skoda car sales added 9 percent to 12,654 units in
the latter category.

Ford ranked second with passenger car sales up 29 percent to 9,286 units,
followed by Renault with a 20-percent growth to 7,780 units.

In the category of light utility vehicles, Ford confirmed its position of
the largest importer, with a rise of 13 percent to 5,467 cars sold.
Volkswagen ranked third with a 5-percent growth in sales to 5,446 units.

Sales of lorries went down by 3 percent to 9,213 units. Top-selling brands
were Mercedes Benz (1,986), MAN (1,556) and Iveco (1,336).

Bus sales rose by a third to 912 units.