Purchase of the 1st brand-new car increases 284%
O Estado de S. Paulo - 04/14/2008
The dream of buying a new car was achieved by 246 thousand consumers in 2007. From the total of both cars and light commercial vehicles sold last year, 10.5% were purchased by consumers who, for the first time in their lives, received the keys of a car with the so-desired brand-new car smell. The amount of consumers who purchased a brand-new car for the first time is 284% bigger than 2004's, when 64 thousand purchasers had such chance. The amount is equivalent to 3.5% of the total sales in the period, 1.83 million of units. Last year, the amount of cars and light commercial vehicles sold was 2.34 million altogether. Low interest rates and long term financing have opened the doors to a social class that only used to buy second-hand cars. It also allowed a part of them to go straight to a new car, without having to firstly buy a second-hand one. "The confidence of the consumer in the economy and in the maintenance of the employment levels also played an important role", states the vice-president of Toyota Mercosul, Luiz Carlos Andrade Júnior. Andrade says the percentage of consumers who bought a new car for the first time in the last three years is based on a sample collected from market surveys with all brands of vehicles. Besides the financing and the confidence of the consumer, he adds the fall of the inflation and the increase of the GDP to the factors that helped to form this setting in the automobile market. A great part of the debutants in the purchase of new models belongs to the C class, characterized by Cetelem financial company as families with an average income of R$ 1.062 (US$ 607), besides the material goods.