Car sales details are hard to come by and difficult to tabulate. By my method, vehicle sales were about 17,000 in 2001, slipping to the low teens before jumping to 23,000 in 2004. After remaining fairly level for two further years, they suddenly increased again to 30,000 for 07-08 years. They then slipped back to 19,000 in 2009 and should be similar in 2010.
Between the years of 2001 to 2004, Peugeot and Toyota battled for top spot, with sales of about 2,000 vehicles each. Ford took #1 in 2006, a place it has held since. Nissan has held second since 2008. Sales for 2009 were as follows:
1 Ford 2,600 13.3%
2 Nissan 2,400 12.3%
3 Toyota 1,600 8.3%
4 VW 1,400 7.3%
5 BMW 1,175 6%
6 Mercedes 1,050 5.4%
7 Audi 1,000 5.2%
8 Honda 1,000 5.2%
9 Mitsubishi 825 4.3%
10 Opel 725 3.7%
As you can see, premium brands are strong in Cyprus and French marques that were once strong are nowhere to be seen either. The latter hardly surprising. 2010 so far is much the same.
What it means to me: Despite its political upheavals, the car market looks healthy.