Data released by JD Power Automotive Forecasting shows that car sales in Western Europe declined by 5.4% in December to leave the market for the year down 5.2% on 2009 at just under 13m units.

JD Power said that the December result  – which saw the German market turn positive again – was a less severe drop than in the previous few months. It also witnessed a rise in the selling rate compared to recent months due to a boost from the ending of some remaining scrappage incentives, as well as manufacturers incentivising more heavily last month to make up for a bad year.

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The big swing market in 2010 was Germany, with full year sales down by 23% in a scrappage-boosted 2009.

JD Power forecasts that the West European car market will register a slight fall in 2011 with sales of  12.7m units, 2% below the 2010 tally.

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