The number of newly registered cars in Romania grew to 209.138 in the first eight months of the year, up 29.2% compared to the similar period last year, according to the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers Association. A total of 10,023,580 new cars were reported at European level during the same period, up 1% compared to January-August 2006.

The number of new car registrations grew 7.3% in Italy, 4.9% in Britain and remained almost unchanged in France. Meanwhile, the German market fell 7.6% and the Spanish market - 1.5%.

Best sales were reported by Volkswagen with 2,139,866 units, followed by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Ford. The Renault Group to which Romanian car maker Dacia belongs comes fifth with 936,003 cars sold.