Though Europe’s top five new car markets all posted growth in a month traditionally slow due to continental summer holidays, this cannot be regarded as market recovery, JATO Dynamics analysts said in their monthly review.
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Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Spain all saw higher August sales than in the same month of 2008. Of the ‘big five’, Spain was the last eventually to post growth this year, with its marginal 0.7% improvement year on year.
“We are not by any means seeing a complete market recovery, but with the five biggest markets now all heading in the right direction, we can certainly feel very encouraged”, said JATO Consult head David Di Girolamo.
“The holiday period during August always sees lower volumes sold, but at least the August figures continue the European trend towards improved sales, and although the overall year-to-date figure remains down by 7.3%, we have seen a 1.2% improvement over July.”
Models
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By GlobalDataVolkswagen was the top brand and its Golf remained Europe’s best-selling car after its fifth consecutive month at the top of the charts, with volume up 17.3% YTD and 39.5% in August.
Ford’s Fiesta remained runner-up, with sales up 36.9% YTD and 33.3% in August.
The Opel/Vauxhall Corsa rose from fifth in July to third last month (up 15.9% for the month) while the Peugeot 207 slipped from third to fourth (up 1.2%) and the Renault Clio climbed from ninth to fifth (up 2.5%).
The Ford Focus remained sixth (down 5.3%), the Fiat Punto slid from fourth to seventh (despite volume up 45.7%), the Skoda Fabia re-entered the top ten at eighth position (up 3.9%), the Panda dropped from eighth to ninth (up 37.2%) and the outgoing Opel/Vauxhall Astra dropped from seventh to 10th (down 1.1%).
National Trends
August is a traditionally quiet month for car sales thanks to the established holiday period across the continent, so sales volumes were substantially less in many markets in the region. With the five major European markets performing well, the YTD decline fell by a further 1.2% over that recorded up to July, although many markets were still significantly down on their 2008 figures.
Top 10 Models
| Make & Model | Aug_09 | Aug_08 | % Change Aug | Aug YtD_09 | Aug YtD_08 | % Change YtD |
VOLKSWAGEN GOLF | 37,662 | 26,999 | +39.5% | 376,013 | 320,668 | +17.3% |
FORD FIESTA | 21,648 | 16,246 | +33.3% | 304,274 | 222,321 | +36.9% |
OPEL/VAUXHALL CORSA | 19,818 | 17,101 | +15.9% | 231,187 | 255,796 | -9.6% |
PEUGEOT 207 | 18,753 | 18,536 | +1.2% | 245,444 | 298,626 | -17.8% |
RENAULT CLIO | 17,618 | 17,188 | +2.5% | 187,672 | 243,812 | -23.0% |
FORD FOCUS | 16,613 | 17,550 | -5.3% | 205,582 | 260,212 | -21.0% |
FIAT PUNTO | 16,458 | 11,292 | +45.7% | 218,214 | 207,244 | +5.3% |
SKODA FABIA | 14,842 | 14,279 | +3.9% | 148,337 | 144,731 | +2.5% |
FIAT PANDA | 14,354 | 10,460 | +37.2% | 200,407 | 150,569 | +33.1% |
OPEL/VAUXHALL ASTRA | 13,858 | 14,017 | -1.1% | 177,594 | 233,620 | -24.0% |
Top 10 Brands
| Make | Aug_09 | Aug_08 | % Change Aug | Aug YtD_09 | Aug YtD_08 | % Change YtD |
VOLKSWAGEN | 104,589 | 91,031 | +14.9% | 1,086,496 | 1,063,897 | +2.1% |
FORD | 62,762 | 59,850 | +4.9% | 835,198 | 845,257 | -1.2% |
OPEL/VAUXHALL | 56,894 | 54,590 | +4.2% | 709,796 | 812,088 | -12.6% |
RENAULT | 56,661 | 56,006 | +1.2% | 672,632 | 782,520 | -14.0% |
PEUGEOT | 55,769 | 47,032 | +18.6% | 651,450 | 715,493 | -9.0% |
FIAT | 48,983 | 43,640 | +12.2% | 681,426 | 672,849 | +1.3% |
CITROEN | 48,522 | 43,681 | +11.1% | 569,126 | 606,808 | -6.2% |
TOYOTA | 45,176 | 42,743 | +5.7% | 468,579 | 535,461 | -12.5% |
AUDI | 36,965 | 41,917 | -11.8% | 421,025 | 442,508 | -4.9% |
BMW | 33,217 | 34,506 | -3.7% | 370,647 | 468,374 | -20.9% |
Sales by Market
| Country | Aug_09 | Aug_08 | % Change Aug | Aug | Aug YtD_08 | % Change YtD |
Austria | 22,423 | 18,285 | +22.6% | 221,134 | 209,648 | +5.5% |
Belgium | 30,085 | 32,954 | -8.7% | 339,196 | 402,893 | -15.8% |
Cyprus | 740 | 1,422 | -48.0% | 10,711 | 15,437 | -30.6% |
Czech Republic | 9,289 | 10,264 | -9.5% | 84,087 | 95,659 | -12.1% |
Denmark | 7,501 | 11,361 | -34.0% | 70,578 | 109,847 | -35.7% |
Estonia | 599 | 1,596 | -62.5% | 7,038 | 19,139 | -63.2% |
Finland | 5,916 | 9,446 | -37.4% | 64,595 | 108,707 | -40.6% |
France | 110,542 | 103,350 | +7.0% |
1,430,391
1,415,200
+1.1%
Germany
275,219
214,386
+28.4%
2,674,600
2,110,089
+26.8%
Great Britain
67,006
63,225
+6.0%
1,149,110
1,464,124
-21.5%
Greece
22,843
19,759
+15.6%
168,765
207,115
-18.5%
Hungary
2,518
11,132
-77.4%
45,937
107,079
-57.1%
Iceland
136
429
-68.3%
1,796
8,148
-78.0%
Ireland
2,414
5,240
-53.9%
52,945
145,574
-63.6%
Italy
85,051
78,456
+8.4%
1,426,268
1,542,579
-7.5%
Latvia
387
1,555
-75.1%
3,951
15,252
-74.1%
Lithuania
530
1,406
-62.3%
5,402
16,892
-68.0%
Luxembourg
2,579
1,462
+76.4%
31,289
36,177
-13.5%
Norway
7,967
7,833
+1.7%
59,108
79,003
-25.2%
Poland*
22,069
20,408
+8.1%
215,626
212,513
+1.5%
Portugal*
10,509
12,349
-14.9%
100,751
148,310
-32.1%
Slovakia
7,024
6,486
+8.3%
63,470
59,322
+7.0%
Slovenia
3,883
4,374
-11.2%
38,412
49,934
-23.1%
Spain
58,981
58,552
+0.7%
600,909
882,274
-31.9%
Sweden
15,542
17,721
-12.3%
132,887
172,507
-23.0%
Switzerland*
19,541
18,487
+5.7%
176,946
195,434
-9.5%
The Netherlands
27,881
39,375
-29.2%
281,510
378,038
-25.5%
Grand Total
819,175
771,313
+6.2%
9,457,412
10,206,894
-7.3%
