Sales of two-seat four-wheel-drive offroaders have skyrocketed in Denmark in recent years, due largely to the fact that motorists can register these vehicles with yellow number plates and save up to 50% from the sticker price, the Copenhagen Post reported.
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Vehicles are only eligible for yellow number plates if there’s no back seat.
The paper cited a couple who recently traded in their six-year-old Nissan Micra for a Nissan X-Trail.
“We don’t have children yet, so it was no problem for us to buy a car with room for just two passengers. And we wanted a roomier car for the novelty of it,” they said. The Micra was too small for the couple to take on holiday, so they decided to try an offroader for size. “We think it’s OK to be a little egotistical, seeing as how a backseat would have cost us another DKK250,000 [$US41,000],” they said.
Toyota’s offroader model for the Danish yellow-plate market is the RAV4.
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By GlobalData“About 85% of the RAV4’s we sell are to companies, but we’ve seen a tremendous increase over the past few years in sales to private buyers,” Toyota Denmark director Flemming Bak told the Copenhagen Post.
“Young people tend to have flashy apartments, and take ski trips to trendy destinations. A trendy car is part of that lifestyle,” Bak added.
But many older Danes are also falling in love with the four-wheel-drive way of life. Car dealerships have noted the rising popularity of offroaders among the “empty nest” demographic.
“Once their kids move away from home, people don’t necessarily need a car with lots of passenger space. Offroaders are often ideal for pulling campers, and that’s a plus for older buyers,” said Toyota’s Bak.
Two-seater SUV’s offer an added benefit for sport and leisure fans of all ages.
“A lot of people use the Nissan X -Trail for golf, since there’s room for equipment. The X-Trail also has a special compartment that can be used for storing hunting rifles,” Nissan press chief Ann Strøby told Copenhagen Post.
