German new car sales were down 6.6% in December, but this was a considerable improvement over the previous month, which had seen a year-on-year fall of 18%.
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Sales in December were 225,981 cars, bringing full year 2008 sales to 3.09m, a decline of 1.8% over the previous year.
One of the hardest hit manufacturers during the month was Toyota. It saw sales fall 53.3%. Full year sales were down 27% to 96,781.
Volkswagen was market leader during the year with 615, 229 sales. The brand increased its market share to 19.9%, up from 19.3% in 2007. Sales rose in December by 5.7%.
Troubled Opel saw German sales fall 9.5% during the year. Porsche also recorded a substantial fall of 8.2% in 2008.
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By GlobalDataWinners were Smart (+5.7%) and Fiat (+19.4%). The mini segment was up 18%, according to data from the government’s vehicle registration agency, the Kraftfahrtbundesamt. 40% of the mini segment was the Smart Fortwo, Fiat 500 and Renault Twingo.
Sales of SUVs fell 3%, while sports car sales were down 14.2%, upper medium segment sales were down 18.6% and minivan sales were down 11%.
The diesel share of the market in 2008 was 44.1%, down on 2007. Average CO2 emissions were down 2.9% to 165g/km.
