New registrations in March rose 4.5% year on year, adding to the evidence that Germany’s car sales are slowly recovering, the German motor vehicles department KBA said on Wednesday.
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New registrations for passenger cars totalled 332,963 units last month, the KBA said, according to Reuters, not far off German industry association VDA’s preliminary estimate of 345,000 units given last week.
“After the start of spring and the switch to summer time, the first signs of a seasonal change in the auto market are recognisable,” KBA reportedly said.
But Reuters noted that the increase in March couldn’t compensate for the market’s weakness early in the year – new registrations in the quarter to March fell 2.7% to 765,267 cars.
The report said Toyota and luxury marque Lexus emerged as the clear winners in the first three months of 2004, boosting registrations by more than 30% compared with marginal gains and losses among the domestic brands like BMW and Volkswagen.
Both French carmakers and German subsidiaries of US producers performed poorly in the quarter, as sales of their models declined in most instances in the low double-digit percentages, while Peugeot registrations dropped 8.8% in the first quarter and Renault plunged 19.5%, Reuters said.
Registrations for Ford vehicles fell 10.5% in the first three months, compared to an 11.3% decline in GM brands, including Opel, the report added.
