And if you thought Christmas...
And if you thought Christmas was expensive, your wallet is in for another battering. Shopping experts say the average family splashed out í‚á£375 on gifts in December, but the RAC has worked out we spent another í‚á£447 on the car at the same time. Yet we"ll do it again this month and every other one! This means the average annual cost of running a vehicle now stands at í‚á£5,368, the highest figure for more than a year.
The market has developed...
The market has developed well in all western European countries. With two million units sold, sales of portable navigation equipment rose ten-fold in 2005 compared with the previous year. The country comparison confirms the UK leads the European market with a total of 670,000 devices sold. Germany (407,000), France (295,000), Italy (186,800) and the Netherlands (129,600) follow.
The positive trend resulted mainly from the fact that prices for these systems have come down significantly. More than 50% of all equipment is sold by electronics retailers. Almost one in five navigation devices are bought in PC or mobile phone shops, with department stores and mail order companies, online shops, car hi-fi specialists and specialist car accessory stores accounting for 14% market share each. In addition, food discount stores are also offering these products at irregular intervals. These stores sold tens of thousands of devices last year.