Data analyst JATO says that July cars sales figures for Europe show that the Golf led the market for the fifth consecutive month.
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Golf sales in July were up on its sales last year; it was up 15.5% in the first seven months and 26.9% in July, although the gap to its rivals is smaller than 2008, JATO said.
Another strong performer was Ford’s new Fiesta. Fiesta sales in the first seven months were up 37.1% on last year; the sales gain in was 55.9% for the month of July. Boosted by its popularity with German, Italian and British scrappage-incentivised customers, it also becomes the only non-French brand model in the first seven months’ Top 10 in France.
JATO says that small cars are continuing to lead the recovery and are the main reason behind a 3.3% rise in the European new car market in July.
“The much talked about ‘green shoots’ of recovery can be seen in the small car segment, which is the greatest beneficiary of scrappage incentives and European customers’ desire to move to more affordable cars. Whether this performance is sustainable remains to be seen,” says David Di Girolamo, Head of JATO Consult.
See also: UK: W. Europe car sales up 4.4% in July
