February closed with the sale of 2,769 new cars, but 3,394 units were sold during the same period in 2008.
This represents the lowest figure in the last 12 months.
Journalist Manuel Luna wrote in laestrella.com.pa: "Luxury brands were affected such as Mercedes Benz where 23 cars were sold in January and only 15 were sold in February, while Lexus went from 20 to 8 cars sold.
Ricardo Pérez S.A., a distributor for Toyota, Daihatsu and Hino, is building a logistics center with advice from the Toyota Corporation.
The logistics center, located near the Pacific and Atlantic ports, will open in May.
Fernando Miranda, vice president of post-sales for Ricardo Perez S.A., explained the advantages of the center to La Estrella de Panama: "This project brings efficiency and agility in customer dispatch, reducing time and cost." It will allow the company to “reduce the time between port arrival and placement of the products for sale from 5 to 2 ½ days."
The Ricardo Perez S.A. agency announced that it will sell the car in the market starting in 2009.
The Toyota Prius has beaten the world record in sales for this category, selling more than one million units in the US, Europe, and Japan where it was first sold.
In line with hybrids, this global campaign by Toyota includes the integration of hybrid technology with a domestic connection.