Sale of new vehicles in Gabon inched up by 3% in 2008 to 5,015 from 4,857 in 2007, according to figures published by Gabonese car dealers, Union of Automobile Representatives (URAI) on Friday.
The figures showed that the Japanese car Toyota topped the table of new cars during the past decade.
The car dealers noted a continuous drop in the sale of European cars with the most significant drops being German top brand Mercedes and French company Renault Dacia.
Sale of US cars and other makes remained stable on the whole, according to the figures.
Auto companies said the bright spell in the sale of brand new cars could be traced to “the relative stability of the Gabonese economy” characterized by a 5% economic growth in 2008 and a high growth of oil revenues.
URAI said imports of brand new vehicles in Gabon were the biggest in Central African countries which has only 1.5 million inhabitants in the small oil-rich country.
The statistics indicate that the country’s car fleet is about 100,000 vehicles with marked preference for four-wheel drive cars which stand out in sales per category with nearly 60% of the market share.
