Second-hand car sales soar

More and more Austrians are buying second-hand cars.

Statistik Austria announced today (Tues) 67,814 used cars were sold last month, 1.8 per cent more than in August 2010. The share of diesel-powered vehicles inched back by 0.5 per cent to 54.4 per cent.

The number of registrations of second-hand trucks improved by 1.9 per cent from August 2010 to the same time span of the current year.

Earlier this month, Statistik Austria said around 25,884 new cars were registered across the country in August, up by 4.8 per cent compared to the same month of 2010. Ford did best among Austrian’s 10 most popular brands with a 77.3 per cent increase of sales.

In related news, car club ÖAMTC said 406 traffic jams were registered in Austria this summer. Almost one quarter more occurred in the previous summer holiday period, according to the organisation. Almost 46 per cent of this summer’s tailbacks occurred due to accidents.