New car market in Europe declines

Date: 18/8/2011

The European market for new cars dropped by one per cent during July.

Such is the finding of analysis carried out by JATO Dynamics, which revealed that there has been a 1.7 per cent fall during the year to date.

The reason for this is believed to be a slight drop in purchases in the UK, France, Italy and Spain.

However, of the top ten best-performing models, six vehicles saw their sales increase during July, compared to the two that achieved this in June.

In terms of brands, three of the ten most popular noted sales growth during the month.

The Volkswagen Golf was the continent's bestselling car overall, with purchases increasing 2.9 per cent during the month when compared with the previous year.

Gareth Hession, Vice-President of Research at JATO, said: "While the new car market has been strong in Germany, low sales performances in July for the rest of the big five markets continue to impact the region as a whole."

In a separate piece of research, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders found that vehicle manufacturing is showing signs of recovery, with output rising 1.3 per cent in July and 3.7 per cent during the first seven months of 2011.

Posted by Mary Treen