Çetin, speaking to the Anatolia news agency on Friday, said the company has set its sights on increasing Dacia sales in Turkey to 15,000 this year. Noting that 2009 was an “extremely successful” year for Dacia, the manager said they broke a new record in sales despite some contraction due to the global financial crisis last year. “In the long term, we plan to have a market share of 4 to 5 percent in Turkey. We anticipate a remarkable increase in our sales this year,” Çetin noted. “We sold 9,700 Dacia models in Turkey last year. This was a new record since our arrival in this market.” Discussing fears of stagnation in the Turkish passenger vehicle market this year, he said sales figures for the first two months were well above expectations. “We could experience a nice surprise in the market with an unprecedented recovery this year,” he opined.
Underlining that the company, encouraged by the growth in sales in 2009, expects this year to be a “turning point” for Dacia in the Turkish market, he said they have faith that the vehicles will leap forward in Turkey, particularly following the introduction of new models this year. Recalling that the company is preparing to introduce its Duster model, a 4x4 all-terrain vehicle, shortly, he said they expected to “bring new air and heat up competition in the market” with this model. “We are planning to release the Duster in April,” he said, adding they expected to sell 2,900 Dusters in Turkey this year. Dacia serves Turkish customers through 68 sales offices along with 250 technical service centers across the country.
