New car sales dropped 57% in Romania in the first 10 months of the year and the import went down by the same percentage on a market where Diacia holds 29% and other five brands own between 5% and 8%, according to APIA data. Kia ce'd was the best sold car from import, followed by Renault Clio. About 70% of the cars sold in Romania run on gasoline.

Overall, car sells (including commercial vehicles) count 126,000 units, against 292,000 the figure for January - October 2008. Individually, the classic car sales dropped 54%, counting 112,150 units, while the commercial vehicles dropped 70% in sales.

After ten months, Dacia holds 20.1% of the market, followed by Hyunday - 7.6%, Volkswagen - 7.3%, Renault - 6.9% and Ford - 6.6%. The volume brands that saw the most drastic shrinkage in the first ten months of the year are Opel and Skoda, with 67% and 66%, respectively.

Kia cee'd is the best sold imported car, with nearly 5,000 units, followed by Renault Clio (4,600 units) and ford Focus (3,000 units).

Last month, Dacia sold 3,141 new cars in Romania, double the number compared with January, when the company recorded the worse month for the local car. The best month for Dacia has been June, when 4,800 new cars were bought.

Nearly 7,200 foreign-branded cars have been sold in Romania in October. They belong to the batch that recorded the slowest sales in January - under 5,500 cars, and the best sales in April - over 10,200.