France 1973: Renault 12 in pole position

Renault 12

15/09/2026 update: Now with Top 33 brands

New passenger car sales in France progress 6.6% year-on-year in 1973 to 1,745,830, an all time record again. Renault (+3.5%) can’t match its home market’s growth rate and drops to a round 30% share. Peugeot (+16%) is the performer of the year, overtaking Citroen (+5.1%) to 2nd place overall with 19.8% share vs. 18.2% last year. Chrysler France (+1.1%) is also shy.

Citroen GS

Ford (-4.3%) dominates foreign carmakers again but falls to 4.3%, distancing Fiat (-2.5%) at 3.8%. Opel (-4.1%) is also weak unlike Volkswagen (+15%) up to 2.1% of the market. Auto-Union (+132.1%) shoots up to #10. Datsun (+124.4%) continues to lead the Japanese charge at #14 overall with 0.4% share, ahead of Toyota (+92.4%) at 0.3% and Honda (+32.2%) at 0.1%. Lada launches at #20.

Peugeot 504

The Renault 12 is the best-selling car in France in 1973 but I don’t have any official sales data so if you do, please get in touch by commenting on this post. Production figures show the Renault 12 in the lead too by a large margin ahead of the Citroen GS, Renault 5, Peugeot 504 and Renault 4.

Full 1973 Top 33 brands and Top 5 models (production) below.