Dubai: New car sales are expected to rise by 27,600, or 8.5 per cent, to 355,117 in the UAE this year, according to a report by Business Monitor International (BMI), an independent provider of proprietary data, analysis, and forecasts.
While car retailers expect a slight increase in sales for 2010, they say the 8.5 per cent figure beats their own expectations.
"I'd like it to be like that," said Graham Turner, chief executive of Al Ghandi Auto Group, distributers of GM and Chevrolet. But we're still in a little bit of a turmoil. I think it's going to be in the 6 or 7 per cent increase range."
Several factors would affect high car sales figures; among them liquidity and market confidence, Turner said.
Getting better
Esam Abu Nabaa, president of Hyundai at Juma Al Majid Establishment, agreed. "We can't compare this year with 2008, but year-on-year there is a slight increase in sales."
Abu Nabaa said that figures are never completely accurate. "This figure could include a lot of re-exported cars," he said. "We shouldn't forget that Dubai and the UAE is a hub for the re-export market. Hence a lot of the imported car figures include numbers of the cars that are re-exported."
The fact that there is no change in the banks' policies and their regulations on car loans remain tight have not helped retailers with their sales, Abu Nabaa said.
