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02.09.03, 21:00
German bastions of loyalty resist Asia car imports
Reuters / September 02, 2003
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Foreign automakers, while making inroads into Germany,
face regional pockets of resistance in Europe's biggest car market that they
are unlikely to conquer, a German study showed on Monday.
The study by researchers R.L. Polk Marketing Systems showed that many German
consumers not only prefer to buy German, they prefer to buy from just around
the corner.
Europe's biggest car maker, Volkswagen, enjoys a 93 percent market share in
its home town of Wolfsburg, compared with 18 percent in Germany as a whole,
according to the study.
The market share of BMW in its southern home state of Bavaria is twice as
high as across the rest of the country, while Audi accounts for 80 percent of
car sales in its home town of Ingolstadt.
Germany's industrial icons may be relieved that brand loyalty is alive and
well on their doorsteps, but they have still been losing ground to foreign
rivals in their home market overall.
Most domestic carmakers sold markedly fewer vehicles in Germany in the first
six months of 2003 than in the year-earlier period, according to data from
the country's department of motor vehicles (KBA), while unit sales of
foreign, particularly Asian, manufacturers grew.
Only VW's main rival, Europe's second-biggest car maker PSA Peugeot-Citroen,
has managed to make brand loyalty cross borders, the R.L. Polk study showed.
In the western Saarland region, which borders France, the French firm
controls 19 percent of the market compared with 3.3 percent in Germany as
whole.
Ci Niemcy to jednak masochiści;) Tak bardzo podobają im się japońskie
samochody, a jednak kupują niemieckie.
Pozdrawiam
