Any public outrage over Volkswagen's now infamous monkey diesel fumes testing was likely too late in the month to affect record January sales by the core VW brand of 533,500 vehicles worldwide.
The tally was up 7.1% year on year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Europe volume was up 4.9% to 135,300 units with Switzerland notable for a 43.3% rise.
German automakers always break out the home market and German sales were up 12.3% to 43,300, helped by a current 'environmental incentive', a scrappage scheme to get older, higher polluting models off the roads. VW said it had sold over 100,000 vehicles since the scheme launched.
Western Europe volume was up 5.7%.
But central and eastern Europe region sales dipped 0.7% to 17,500 sales though Russia, recovering from the doldrums of recent years, saw a 22% rise to 5,600.
North America volume was up 0.8% to 41,700 with the UStally rising 5.2% to 24,700. VW noted SUVs' share there was now 52%.
South America sales rose 16.1% to 37,700 driven mainly by Brazil where volume rose 43.2% to 23,900.
The brand's largest market, China, saw a 9.7% rise to 296,900.
