Just a wee country.
From my experience all the same models are offered by the manufacturers that are offered in other euro markets. The big difference is on the lot inventory.. But some such as Peugeot, Citroen, Toyota have lots of models on hand. I have not visited all dealerships as there are so many, such as Skoda, Seat, Fiat, etc. seems endless choices.
When one orders a vehicle here, the new vehicle can usually be delivered to the dealership with in days or at least a couple of weeks. You have to remember everything is close by and transportation from one country to another can be done within hours if needed. So this is the reason there is no worry about marketing costs as you mention.
The turn over rate or the buying pattern here is very different as well. Most will keep a car much longer then the North Amrerican car owner. Kilometres driven in a year here on average is probably between 9-11,000km, whereas the average for Canada is more like 20,000km per year.
New car purchases are way up this year for Estonia at +27%, and I have noticed that the banks and credit institutions are flooding the TV, radio and print pushing /flaunting easy access to loans etc, much the same as I was used to seeing in Canada. This is very new to this market place here, and it seems to working , especially in the auto sales, as +27% is quite a large jump for a small market.
These numbers surprise me some, because visually I would have guessed that VW would be the highest seller here.
I know Ford is having a serious problem filling the S-Max orders through out Europe. I spoke with a friend that ordered one last week and will not see his vehicle until February 08. He was saying that the S-Max forum he frequents has many customers in the same position. Ford of Europe obviously was not prepared for the demand the S-Max has gotten, and the plant is Genk is building all 3 new vehicles Mondeo/Galaxy & S-Max. As I understand another shift is to be added on Saturdays, I hope for Fords sake they can rectify this, as making customers wait this length of time will not help the appeal these new Fords are getting from the public over here.
I know at Ford in Tallinn every Mondeo I have seen come in to the dealership is high spec'd and gone withinn a day or 2, so these are customer ordered for sure.
