Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog

Opel Astra

* See each year’s Top 100 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

Thanks to the amazing work of Florian from Germany, I can now share with you a Top 100 Models Ranking Table for Germany for each year from 1990 to 1999!

The decade started with the 1991 reunification and a new record for German car sales at 4.2 million units, still unbeaten to this day. 1991 also marked the launch of the VW Golf third generation which would bring the nameplate to an all-time volume record in 1992 at 414,132 units, beating its own 378,856 sales record from 1987 and the Beetle’s 348,929 units from 1961.

While in 1991 the Opel Kadett nameplate hit its highest volume ever at 261,308 sales for its last year of activity, its replacement the Opel Astra went nuts in 1992 and sold 300,804 units, the highest volume ever achieved in Germany by a new nameplate for its first full year… The Beetle took 13 years to reach that annual figure and the Golf took 11!

BMW 3 Series

But wait there’s more records. In 1991 the VW Passat passed the 200,000 annual sales mark for the first time and therefore became the 6th nameplate to do so in Germany since the invention of the automobile. In 1991 also the Renault 19 sold 97,262 units, the highest annual volume ever reached by a foreign model in Germany and a record that would last up to 2009 and the scrappage scheme-boosted Skoda Fabia sales.

Other events that happened in the nineties include the first appearance of a BMW model on the German podium since the Isetta in the fifties: the 3 Series is #3 in 1993, 1995 and 1999, peaking at 148,257 sales in 1992. The progression of the new generation Opel Corsa to a best-ever 157,421 units in 1996, same for the VW Polo to 145,117 sales that year, and still robust: the Opel Vectra, Audi 80 then A4, Mercedes C Class, and many more…

Click on ‘Read more’ below for the direct links to these 10 revised posts!

Germany Historical Data:

West Germany Historical Data:

See 1998-2007 Historical Data here

See 2008-2010 Historical Data here

East Germany Historical Data:

East Germany 1958-1990: Trabant and Wartburg omnipresent

Revised posts:

Germany 1990-1999 Historical Data:

West Germany 1990: VW Golf and Opel Kadett dominate, Opel Vectra up

Germany 1991: East and West reunite, VW Golf and Opel Kadett lead

Germany 1992: VW Golf III and Opel Astra gear up

Germany 1993: BMW 3 Series on the podium for the first time

Germany 1994: VW Golf leads, Mercedes C Class shines

Germany 1995: VW Golf #1, BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 strong

Germany 1996: VW Golf leads, Opel Corsa and VW Polo up

Germany 1997: Last year of VW Golf III reign, VW Passat up to #4

Germany 1998: VW Golf #1 for 18th consecutive year

Germany 1999: Ford Focus and Mercedes A Class arrive

Source: KBA, Manufacturers, many thanks to Florian for sharing the data!