Following a 7.2 percent drop in car sales in 2004, the domestic market saw a slight increase last year following the increased financing of car purchases through leasing and loans.
The best selling car brand was Opel with 10,763 sold cars (a 15.3 percent market share).
Opel was followed by Renault with 9,094 cars (12.9 percent), Volkswagen with 7,477 cars (10.6 percent), Peugeot (5,576 cars or 7.9 percent), Citroen (5,275 cars or 7.5 percent) and Skoda (5,064 cars or 7.2 percent).
The best selling car in 2005 was the Opel Astra (5,596 cars), followed by the Renault Clio (4,029), the Opel Corsa (3,768), the Skoda Fabia (2,874), the VW Golf (2,544) and the Peugeot 206 (2,285).
Regional distribution of car sales indicates considerable differences in the regional market potential. The City and County of Zagreb make up 35.4 percent of total sales, followed by Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (8.9 percent), Split County (8.7 percent), Istria County (7.5 percent), and Osijek County (5.7 percent). At the bottom of the list are Lika County (0.6 percent), Pozega-Slavonski Brod County (1.0 percent) and Virovitica-Podravina County (1.2 percent).
Small and lower class vehicles made up three quarters of the new car market, with diesel cars making up 46.5 percent of the market, a significant increase in relation to the situation of some ten years ago when their market share was some 10 percent.
New car sales are expected to grow by two percent this year.
Journalists specialising in the car industry have named the Clio III car of the year 2006 in Croatia.
The Citroen C1, the Peugeot 107 and the Toyota Aygo share the second place, while the Alfa Romeo takes the third position.