New car sales in the European Union were down 8.2 percent overall from last year’s levels in September despite two additional selling days. General Motors was hit the hardest with a drop of 18.1 percent, though Ford ’s European operations and PSA, the parent company of Peugeot and Citroen, both recorded a 6.4 percent drop.
The individual brands with the biggest percentage drops included Alfa Romeo (down 30.6 percent) Land Rover (down 28.3 percent) and Lexus (down 27.3 percent). The biggest gainer in the EU market was Renault subsidiary Dacia, which grew 41.9 percent. Smart and Jaguar also saw double digit climbs, at 15.8 and 15.5 percent, respectively.
Much of the market decline was due to the struggling United Kingdom and Spanish markets, both of which saw decreases of more than 20 percent. The smaller markets of Ireland, Iceland (which is suffering a massive economic crunch) and Latvia saw greater than 40 percent drops in September. France, the EU’s fourth largest market (behind the UK, Germany and Italy), helped out a little thanks to new government incentives to purchase smaller, more efficient and less polluting cars. France’s sales rose 8.4 percent in September.
