Figures released by the European carmakers’ association – ACEA – confirmed that the Western European new car market in March was heavily supported by the exceptionally strong Italian market (distorted by incentives) and as a result recorded a small gain of 2% to 1.59 million units. Car sales in the first quarter were down 2.4% over the same period last year at 3.8 million units.

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The Italian car market was up by 27.4% over last year to 269,800 units in March, but that unusually high growth was driven by an incentives scheme for the scrappage of older cars. The German and French car markets were down by 1.2% and 5.6% respectively in March. The UK market was up by 3.4%.

‘These figures seem to indicate that the overall market has not suffered much from the start of military operations in Iraq,’ said ACEA in a statement. However, ACEA did point out that in many European countries March 2003 had one more working day than March last year, thus making the comparison with last year appear more favourable.

ACEA’s national market figures were in line with those already released by LMC/JD Power and published on just-auto on April 4 (see here).

ACEA’s analysis includes a breakdown of European car sales by group and make. These show that Fiat’s share continued to languish in spite of the sales surge in its home market during March. Fiat Group’s European share in March was just 7.6% compared with 7.9% in the same month last year.

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Market leader Volkswagen Group’s share in March slipped to 16.2% against 17.0% last year and second placed PSA continued to close the gap, with a share of 15.3% against 14.5% last year. PSA’s Citroën unit saw sales up 17.2% in March, with its European share up to 6.5%, which compares with 5.7% last year.

A number of Asian makers performed well in March, including Toyota, Honda and Kia. Toyota was boosted by the impact of the new Avensis, while Honda gained from the new Accord.

Volkswagen’s share position in Europe is being eroded this year by an ageing model line-up, with support from the new fifth generation Golf not due until the end of the year. CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder has already warned that VW Group profits will be lower this year than last.

Speculation has grown recently that competitive pressures in Europe could result in the introduction of zero percent financing along the lines of the incentive programmes that operate in the US.