Renault saw its sales fall 23.7 per cent in February
There’s been a big decline in new car sales across Europe in February, with monthly sales down almost ten per cent compared to 2011, and it’s the mainstream car makers who are suffering the most.
Sales for Renault are down by a massive 23.7 per cent to 86,402, Peugeot Citroen did almost as badly with a drop of 16.5 per cent to 118,381 and Fiat suffered the same percentage drop with sales of 66,249 (Alfa Romeo sales actually fell by 28.5 per cent).
It’s a further sign that the over capacity in Europe and the whole Eurozone crisis is playing havoc with the car industry across Europe, in particular for mainstream makers. GM Europe – Opel and Vauxall – which recently tried to plug a hole by tying up with PSA also saw a drop of 20.3 per cent.
As far as sales by country goes, it was France and Italy which saw the big drops, no surprise really considering the financial problems they have, with France reporting sales down 20 per cent and Italy 19 per cent.
Germany – whose economy is the biggest and strongest in Europe – saw no sales decline and VW bucked the trend by posting sales figures in Europe down by just 2.1 per cent.
As we said when we reported the collaboration between GM and PSA, perhaps the time has come to accept that car buyers no longer want mainstream cars and are looking for either budget or premium offerings? The problem with that is the political implications of closing vast tracts of production capacity in Europe.
But the fact that sales at the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes held up well – and Jaguar Land Rover improved hugely – shows what buyers want. And at the other end of the scale Hyundai and Kia did well with sales up too.
The car landscape has changed, but does anyone have the balls to fix it?
European Car Sales February 2012
Sales by Market
| Country | Feb_12 | Feb_11 | % change Feb | Feb YtD_12 | Feb YtD_11 | % change YtD |
| Austria | 24,005 | 26,412 | -9.1% | 50,831 | 51,996 | -2.2% |
| Belgium | 43,716 | 53,135 | -17.7% | 88,448 | 106,371 | -16.8% |
| Croatia | 3,552 | 3,340 | +6.3% | 7,049 | 6,657 | +5.9% |
| Cyprus* | 1,130 | 1,185 | -4.6% | 2,283 | 2,458 | -7.1% |
| Czech Republic | 13,544 | 12,847 | +5.4% | 26,465 | 24,525 | +7.9% |
| Denmark | 11,179 | 11,577 | -3.4% | 24,047 | 23,954 | +0.4% |
| Estonia | 1,303 | 936 | +39.2% | 2,974 | 2,259 | +31.7% |
| Finland | 10,611 | 9,298 | +14.1% | 24,843 | 23,084 | +7.6% |
| France | 163,010 | 204,400 | -20.2% | 310,067 | 389,921 | -20.5% |
| Germany | 224,318 | 224,426 | -0.0% | 434,513 | 435,482 | -0.2% |
| Great Britain | 61,868 | 63,424 | -2.5% | 190,721 | 192,235 | -0.8% |
| Greece | 3,816 | 6,991 | -45.4% | 12,221 | 16,727 | -26.9% |
| Hungary | 4,300 | 3,567 | +20.5% | 9,280 | 7,013 | +32.3% |
| Iceland | 323 | 130 | +148.5% | 643 | 327 | +96.6% |
| Ireland | 11,489 | 12,570 | -8.6% | 32,802 | 33,569 | -2.3% |
| Italy | 131,427 | 162,056 | -18.9% | 269,483 | 328,131 | -17.9% |
| Latvia | 727 | 765 | -5.0% | 1,609 | 1,497 | +7.5% |
| Lithuania | 863 | 925 | -6.7% | 1,871 | 1,771 | +5.6% |
| Luxembourg | 4,543 | 4,410 | +3.0% | 8,192 | 7,763 | +5.5% |
| Norway | 10,972 | 10,585 | +3.7% | 21,832 | 20,985 | +4.0% |
| Poland* | 23,826 | 21,508 | +10.8% | 48,024 | 40,465 | +18.7% |
| Portugal | 6,930 | 13,437 | -48.4% | 13,879 | 26,662 | -47.9% |
| Romania* | 5,182 | 4,233 | +22.4% | 8,657 | 8,632 | +0.3% |
| Serbia | 1,495 | 2,035 | -26.5% | 2,904 | 3,454 | -15.9% |
| Slovakia | 5,374 | 4,810 | +11.7% | 10,176 | 9,234 | +10.2% |
| Slovenia | 4,128 | 5,317 | -22.4% | 9,139 | 10,744 | -14.9% |
| Spain | 64,678 | 66,250 | -2.4% | 119,644 | 120,055 | -0.3% |
| Sweden | 20,735 | 20,993 | -1.2% | 39,421 | 40,237 | -2.0% |
| Switzerland | 22,816 | 22,449 | +1.6% | 46,037 | 43,000 | +7.1% |
| The Netherlands | 44,127 | 49,016 | -10.0% | 114,543 | 123,798 | -7.5% |
| Grand Total | 925,987 | 1,023,027 | -9.5% | 1,932,598 | 2,103,006 | -8.1% |
* denotes estimated or provisional data used for February 2012
Top 10 Brands
| Make | Feb_12 | Feb_11 | % change Feb | Feb YtD_12 | Feb YtD_11 | % change YtD |
| VOLKSWAGEN | 118,938 | 120,883 | -1.6% | 248,182 | 249,868 | -0.7% |
| FORD | 69,036 | 74,982 | -7.9% | 152,967 | 162,108 | -5.6% |
| RENAULT | 68,918 | 94,727 | -27.2% | 132,878 | 184,122 | -27.8% |
| PEUGEOT | 61,233 | 77,069 | -20.5% | 128,865 | 156,668 | -17.7% |
| OPEL/VAUXHALL | 58,969 | 73,085 | -19.3% | 116,796 | 145,981 | -20.0% |
| CITROEN | 56,995 | 64,941 | -12.2% | 114,152 | 130,700 | -12.7% |
| FIAT | 46,475 | 57,464 | -19.1% | 95,362 | 117,193 | -18.6% |
| AUDI | 45,157 | 46,521 | -2.9% | 96,572 | 94,584 | +2.1% |
| MERCEDES | 40,348 | 37,151 | +8.6% | 84,541 | 77,921 | +8.5% |
| BMW | 39,961 | 41,211 | -3.0% | 83,609 | 87,724 | -4.7% |
Top 10 Models
| Make & Model | Feb_12 | Feb_11 | % change Feb | Feb YtD_12 | Feb YtD_11 | % change YtD |
| VOLKSWAGEN GOLF | 32,724 | 34,154 | -4.2% | 69,587 | 71,117 | -2.2% |
| VOLKSWAGEN POLO | 24,254 | 25,756 | -5.8% | 50,295 | 54,935 | -8.4% |
| FORD FOCUS | 19,681 | 16,392 | +20.1% | 41,949 | 37,186 | +12.8% |
| FORD FIESTA | 19,588 | 24,245 | -19.2% | 43,516 | 51,611 | -15.7% |
| RENAULT CLIO | 19,048 | 27,499 | -30.7% | 37,550 | 53,445 | -29.7% |
| OPEL/VAUXHALL CORSA | 18,986 | 21,693 | -12.5% | 34,622 | 44,694 | -22.5% |
| VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT | 16,622 | 16,549 | +0.4% | 34,317 | 31,887 | +7.6% |
| PEUGEOT 207 | 15,951 | 21,419 | -25.5% | 34,196 | 42,445 | -19.4% |
| OPEL/VAUXHALL ASTRA | 15,879 | 21,692 | -26.8% | 33,051 | 42,623 | -22.5% |
| FIAT PANDA | 15,785 | 16,209 | -2.6% | 30,934 | 32,705 | -5.4% |
Sales Figures supplied by Jato
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