Germany 2004: VW Golf V leads, Opel Astra back to #2

VW Golf V

* See the Top 100 best-selling models and each monthly Top 20 by clicking on the title! *

Very stable car market in Germany at 3,266,826 registrations this year. The VW Golf, helped by the 5th generation now in dealerships, keeps the lead for the 24th consecutive year but without a bang: at 222,301 units and 6.8% it is still a very fragile performance by Golf’s standards.

Opel Astra

The big event of 2004 is the come-back of the Opel Astra to its ‘traditional’ #2 position, a place it had not held since 2000, even slipping down to #8 last year. The new generation launched in May boosted sales, overall at +23% and 110,218 units (3.4% share), peaking at 13,674 and 4.9% in Dec.

VW Touran

As a result the BMW 3 Series is down to #3 at 109,367 units (-19%), followed by the Mercedes C Class at 104,028 (-1%) and the Audi A4 at 97,287 (-11%), however peaking at a best-ever 2nd place in March with 12,017 sales. The VW Touran excels for its first full year of sales at #6 with 95,408 units, it even broke into the podium twice this year: in June (best-ever 10,460 sales) and July (best-ever 3.5% share).

Mercedes A Class

On paper the Mercedes A Class is stable year at #11 and +7%, however this hides a tormented year marked by the arrival of the 2nd generation of the model in September, accelerating sales to unheard-of 10,338 units and 3.6% share in 2nd place in November! The BMW 5 Series, also relaunched this year, reaches an impressive 5th spot in October (3.1%) and the Audi A3 breaks into the German Top 10 for the first time in November (#8) then manages a best-ever 6th place in December…

The Peugeot 206 is the best-selling foreign model for the 4th consecutive year at #14, followed by the Skoda Fabia (#18 – best-ever #13 in June), Peugeot 307 (#20) and Toyota Corolla (#22). Notice the Renault Modus up to #23 in November, or #3 import.

Full Year Top 100 and every Monthly Top 20 Ranking Tables below.