France 1968: Renault 4 and Peugeot 204 in the lead

Renault 4

29/07/2026 update: Now with Top 15 All French brands and Top 33 All French models.

New car sales in France are slightly impacted by the May student unrest, down -4.4% year-on-year to 1,143,694 units including commercial vehicles. Renault (-4.7%) repeats at #1 and follows its home market to 34% share. Citroen (-17.1%) struggles and is down from 31% last year to 26.9%. Meanwhile Peugeot (+0.5%) continues to gain share to 22.1% but it’s Simca (+20.1%) that delivers the most impressive performance, even though it remains at a distant 4th place.

The Peugeot 504 makes its first appearance in the French rankings.

The Renault 4 (-9.9%) holds onto the pole position despite a steep fall, now teased by the Peugeot 204 (+13.5%) up to 12.5% share. It ist the most popular Peugeot in 30 years. The Citroen Ami 6 (-20.4%) sinks and is down one spot to #3. The Renault 16 (+8.8%) advances to #4 above the Simca 110 (+397.7%) up 11 spots to #5 and the Citroen Dyane (+93.3%) up 7 to #6, the latter two models enjoying their first full year of sales. The Dyane annihilates the 2CV (-62.6%) down to #12. The of this year’s newcomers are the Renault 6 (#17) and Peugeot 504 (#24).

Full Year 1968 Top 15 All French brands and Top 33 All French models below.