New-car sales plunge in first 4 months

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on April 26, 2006. It reports that sales of new cars in Taiwan posted a sharp annual drop of 24 percent in the first four months of 2006 (as of April 20), reaching 127,730 units.

According to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, all the top five carmakers in Taiwan suffered a sales decline of over 10 percent in the first four months of 2006. The only exception is Mazda Taiwan, which posted a sales drop of 8.6 percent. Meanwhile, Ford Lio Ho Motor Co., the local subsidiary of Ford of the United States, posted the largest sales drop of 37.9 percent during the same period.

In related news, two hot new car models were launched in Taiwan in April, which are the eighth-generation Honda Civic by Honda Taiwan Motor Co. and the diesel-engine Hyundai Tucson by Sanyang Industry Co., Ltd. The former has won orders for about 2,000 units as of April 25, and the latter 1,200 units.