11 November 2011

Car Sales In Finland From 1956



When looking back on car sales for the land of a thousand lakes, you realise how different things were in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to the good folk of AKE, we can get a glimpse of that time.

For the period between 1956 and now, the lowest sales were in 1958 when under 14,500 were sold, while it peaked at almost 176,800 in 1989.

Due to not having a local car maker, Finns have no particular allegiance to a brand, as you can see by the frequent changing of the best selling marque in the country. Below is the top car make, followed by the consecutive years it was the leading brand:

Moskvitch 56 57
Volkswagen 58
Moskvitch 59 60 61 62
Ford 63 64
Volkswagen 65 66 67
Ford 68 69 70
Fiat 71 72 73 74 75
Saab 76 77 78
Nissan 79 80 81 82 83 84
Toyota 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
Opel 94 95 96
Volkswagen 97
Opel 98 99
Toyota 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Volkswagen 11

Fifteen switches of leader, covering seven makes. It must be some sort of record. Of the brands, have you heard of the Moskvitch? It was a Russian car brand that after WW2, made a car based heavily on the Opel Kadet and they proved to be sturdy, affordable cars. As seen above, it was popular in Finland for a time. Toyota has had the longest stretches of leadership, but is about to lose it to VW this year.

Finland: a fascinating country, with an equally interesting car market.

Pic: http://www.apexreplicas.com.au/road-car/640122613-moskwitch-408e.html

No comments:

Post a Comment