UK: European market improvement continues

The European new car market continued to improve over the first six months of the year although sales were still significantly down on 2008. At the end of June the market was down 10.3% YTD, a 15.7% improvement on the January figure of 26.0% demonstrating a slow but progressive improvement each month, UK analysts Jato Dynamics said on Thursday.

The Volkswagen Golf continued to dominate with sales up 32.8% year on year while VW itself remained the biggest selling brand in Europe.

“Mid-way through the year is a perfect point to take stock of the overall market and to look for established trends rather than short-term peaks and troughs in the market”, said JATO Consult chief David Di Girolamo.

“With localised scrappage incentives now working consistently to improve sales, we can see steady and progressive improvements in new car registrations. It’s impossible to be conclusive, but with the continued roll out of incentive schemes and the possibility of some renewed consumer confidence, it would seem likely that by the end of the year the European car market could more or less recover to 2008 levels.”

Models

The Golf dominated in five of the six months of H1 2009 with only the second placed Ford Fiesta having borrowed its crown for a single month. The top four places did not change in June with the Peugeot 207 and Opel/Vauxhall Corsa holding their positions. The lower half of the chart saw some reshuffling, with the Peugeot 308 a new entry in 10th position at the expense of the Volkswagen Polo which has now dropped out of the top 10 as the old model is discontinued and the redesigned car is introduced.

Brands

Volkswagen was once again Europe’s top-selling car brand in June, up 12.9% year on year and up a marginal 0.7% YTD. Ford was second while Renault improved considerably from sixth to take third place. Opel/Vauxhall and Fiat rounded off the top five.

Countries

Germany once again was the leading market in June, up 40.5% year on year and 26.1% YTD. France, Poland and Slovakia were the only other markets to be up YTD. However, many countries across Europe are progressively reducing their market deficits, and as such the overall volumes have improved by 2.8% since last month.

Top 10 Models

Make & Model	Jun_09	Jun_08	% Change Jun	Jun YtD_09	Jun YtD_08	% Change YtD
VOLKSWAGEN GOLF	59,628	44,912	+32.8%	286,243	254,023	+12.7%
FORD FIESTA	43,338	30,394	+42.6%	243,340	181,285	+34.2%
PEUGEOT 207	37,361	39,584	-5.6%	193,778	244,078	-20.6%
OPEL/VAUXHALL CORSA	34,540	36,442	-5.2%	181,751	211,578	-14.1%
RENAULT CLIO	32,314	37,571	-14.0%	144,512	200,768	-28.0%
FIAT PUNTO	32,269	26,502	+21.8%	170,641	174,612	-2.3%
FORD FOCUS	31,744	35,082	-9.5%	160,800	212,144	-24.2%
FIAT PANDA	30,346	21,178	+43.3%	159,976	122,563	+30.5%
OPEL/VAUXHALL ASTRA	28,903	32,700	-11.6%	137,832	193,666	-28.8%
PEUGEOT 308	23,786	23,927	-0.6%	118,654	124,052	-4.4%