New car registrations up 17.9 pct in July

Car registrations increased by 17.9 percent in July, with 17,685 plates issued to new or second-hand imported cars, compared to 14,998 in the same month last year.

The increase was four times greater for second-hand imported vehicles, with 34.7 percent of all new registrations in the first seven months of the year being issued to used cars from abroad. According to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data published Thursday, 9,804 new cars were put into circulation last month, an increase of 8.2 percent on July 2017.

The share of imported used cars, which amounted to 7,881 vehicles, increased 32.7 percent in July compared to last year. While the sale for new passenger cars increased by 8.3 percent, used imports in the same category jumped 42.9 percent.

In the first seven months of the year, 126,642 new license plates were issued – 75,912 to new buys and 50,730 to used imports – an increase of 27.2 percent on the same period last year.

Toyota (10.3 percent), Volkswagen (8.9 percent) and Peugeot (8.4 percent) were the most popular makes for the purchasers of new cars.