Romania July 2022: Dacia Sandero scores first ever win in market off -21.9%

The Dacia Sandero is #1 at home for the first time.

The Romanian new car market accelerates its fall in July to -21.9% year-on-year and 12,099 registrations. However thanks to a stellar start of the year the YTD cume is up 12.1% to 70,811. Brand leader Dacia (-20.8%) contains its fall to just below the market rate and reaches 30.4% share vs. 28.1% so far this year. Toyota (+0.8%) swims upstream with a small uptick that allows it to stay at #2, a ranking it also holds year-to-date compared to #7 over the Full Year 2021. Hyundai (-15.9%) rounds out the podium ahead of Skoda (-9.7%) and Renault (-7.6%) all resisting better than the market but still in frank negative. Citroen (+4.2%) is the only additional gainer in the Top 10 with BMW (-3.5%) edging down but Ford (-40.5%), Volkswagen (-34.3%) and Peugeot (-32.3%) imploding. Outside the Top 10, notice Ssangyong (+346.3%), Tesla (+2866.7%), Jeep (+130.8%) and Cupra (+47.8%).

Over in the models ranking, the Dacia Sandero (-33.5%), despite freefalling year-on-year, scores its first ever monthly win at home with 8% share vs. 5.4% YTD. The Dacia Duster (-27.3%) comes in second at 7.5% of the market while the traditional leader, the Dacia Logan (-55.1%) completely implodes to #3 and 6.8% share vs. 9.1% so far this year. After 189 consecutive months of domination since its launch back in September 2004, the Logan has been a lot less dominant in the past 18 months. It was toppled by the Duster in March 2021, by the Spring in November and December 2021, by both the Duster and Spring in March 2022 and by the Sandero and Duster this month. Is this the end of a (long) era? The Hyundai Tucson (+6.9%) defies the negative market and climbs to #5, preventing Dacia from holding the Top 5 positions like last month with the new Jogger down one rank to #6. The Citroen C3 (+64.8%) and Toyota RAV4 (+34.8%) also shine in the remainder of the Top 10.

Previous month: Romania June 2022: Top 5 is 100% Dacia for the first time, first market decline of the year

One year ago: Romania July 2021: Suzuki, Kia, Hyundai help lift market up 19.6%

Full July 2022 Top 45 All-brands and Top 265 All-models below.