Sales of top-of-the-range cars in Portugal have suddenly gone into overdrive.
In the first four months of the year sales figures registered an almost 47% increase over those clocked in 2013, with BMW and Mercedes being the manufacturers showing the most significant leap in popularity (48%).
Carrying the news over the weekend, Lusa news agency simply gave numbers. Ferrari, for example (where prices start at €162.000), sold just one car during the first four months of 2013, but this year it has already seen five rev off sales’ forecourts.
Aston Martin, too, is celebrating. It has sold three cars so far this year (as opposed to two during the same period in 2013), while Porsche has seen sales boom from 68 cars in 2013 to an impressive 110 so far this year.
Altogether, 55,043 new cars have been snapped up this year, with 14,576 of them being sold in April.
ACAP, Portugal’s Automobile Association, released the figures, pointing out that sales last month were a whopping 54.2% up on sales in March.
Needless to say, the good news is tempered by the fact that the top-of-the-range sector is still ‘struggling’ compared to business enjoyed 10 years ago.
Talking to Lusa, a spokesman for ACAP said this year’s sales are 12.1% down on the average for the last decade.
