Another sign of a faltering global economy, new car sales for this summer in Western Europe have dropped off dramatically. Overall sales in Western Europe were down to their lowest levels in more than a decade, especially in the biggest markets of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, and they hardly provide comfort for struggling Detroit-based automakers looking for strength abroad to offset weakness at home.
The only market in which sales forecasters at Global Insight saw improvement was Portugal. Sales in Britain were down 19 percent, Italian sales were down 26 percent and Spanish sales were down an astounding 41 percent, reports The Detroit News.
The overall European market is estimated to sell between 14 and 14.1 million vehicles this year, down from 14.8 million last year and making the market about the same size as the U.S. new car market. Overall European sales are buoyed by a strong but still small Eastern European market.
09/08, 9:32 AM
posted by:
howsmydriving
New car sales are also way down in the Azores, Canary Islands and Liechenstein.
09/08, 9:39 AM
posted by:
bdizzlefizzle
Fledgling Detroit automakers? In what way are they fledglings?
09/08, 9:42 AM
posted by:
projectzr1
I guess they just mean that they’re falling
09/08, 9:49 AM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Given the extremely high percnetage of company car sales in Europe which tend to be on lease and remain constant, this points to a massive drop in standard retail customer sales, which thus points to a severe lack of consumer confidence. Good to know it’s not just in the states!
09/09, 10:42 AM
posted by:
Tosta Mista
The only reason why there was a slight increase of car sales in Portugal was due to the rush of consumers to buy a car before a new tax measure was implemented, which consisted of CO2 emissions. Most cars became more expensive afterwards.