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Germany: Nameplates’ Records now available!

November 26th, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

The VW Golf sold 414,132 units in Germany in 1992 – a record year.

* Click on the title for the Top 30 best-selling nameplates & Top 25 foreign nameplates! *

* Many thanks to Florian for making this post possible! *

We now have detailed data for Germany from 1946 onwards, with the 2000-2006 Annual Top 100 Rankings to be uploaded shortly. With all that data available I can share with you the best-selling nameplates in Germany, ranked based on their record year in volume.

You will see that only 28 nameplates managed to sell upwards of 100,000 units in a single year, among them only one foreign model, the Skoda Fabia. Only 3 nameplates delivered at least one year above 300,000 sales: the VW Golf, Beetle and Opel Astra, and only 6 were above 200,000: adding the Opel Kadett, VW Passat and Mercedes W123.

The VW Beetle’s record year was 1961 with 348,929 sales

Among foreign models, the Renault 19 is #2 with a record 97,262 units in 1991 but it never managed to break into the year-end German Top 10, peaking at #11. The legendary Renault 4 is #3 and was the best-selling import in Germany for a whopping 14 consecutive years between 1967 and 1980, peaking at 84,900 sales in 1970 for an estimated 5th place overall that year. There are 4 more Renaults in the Top 20.

The Renault 4 was the best-selling import in Germany without interruption from 1967 to 1980 

Peugeot is also very well represented with the 206 holding the record for the brand’s highest single model annual sales volume at 63,426 units in 2003 (#12), ahead of the 205 (61,220 in 91) and 207 (58,222 in 09). Fiat’s highest seller is the Punto with 60,197 units in 1995. The Toyota Corolla leads all Japanese models with a high of 52,870 in 1991, followed by the Mazda 323 and 626.

Top 30 best-selling nameplates and Top 25 best-selling foreign nameplates below.

Best-selling nameplates in Germany, ranked by record year:

Pos Model Record Year
1 VW Golf 414,132 1992
2 VW Beetle 348,929 1961
3 Opel Astra 300,804 1992
4 Opel Kadett 261,308 1991
5 VW Passat 210,921 1991
6 Mercedes W123 203,632 1981
7 Opel Vectra 185,736 1991
8 Ford 17M/20M 178,318 1965
9 Opel Rekord 177,280 1972
10 Mercedes “Strich 8″ 159,530 1975
11 Opel Corsa 157,421 1996
12 Audi 80 157,216 1979
13 Mercedes C-Klasse 156,872 2001
14 Mercedes W124 / E-Klasse 156,293 1988
15 Opel Ascona 153,992 1977
16 BMW 3er 148,257 1992
17 VW Polo 145,117 1996
18 Ford Taunus 143,750 1976
19 VW 1500/1600 136,826 1966
20 Audi A4 134,108 1996
21 Ford Escort 131,707 1991
22 Ford Fiesta 130,923 1991
23 Mercedes 190 122,751 1985
25 Ford Focus 112,873 1999
26 Ford 12M / 15M 107,104 1967
27 Skoda Fabia 103,645 2009
28 Mercedes A-Klasse 100,376 1999
29 Ford Sierra 97,478 1983
30 Renault 19 97,262 1991

Best-selling foreign nameplates in Germany, ranked by record year:

Pos Model Record Year Best Pos
1 Skoda Fabia 103,645 2009 5
2 Renault 19 97,262 1991 11
3 Renault 4 84,900 1970 5
4 Renault Clio 82,279 1991 15
5 Peugeot 206 63,426 2003 12
6 Renault Megane 62,806 1996 15
7 Peugeot 205 61,220 1991 13
8 Fiat Punto 60,197 1995 15
9 Fiat Panda 59,114 2009 15
10 Renault Twingo 58,495 1998 17
11 Peugeot 207 58,222 2009 15
12 Skoda Octavia 56,744 2006 17
13 Fiat Grande Punto 53,111 2009 21
14 Fiat Uno 53,049 1987 14
15 Toyota Corolla 52,870 1991 18
16 Dacia Sandero 51,292 2009 22
17 Fiat 128 50,209 1972 12
18 Mazda 323 49,957 1991 18
19 Mazda 626 48,911 1988 16
20 Renault Scenic 47,986 1998 21
21 Seat Ibiza 45,416 2009 24
22 Peugeot 307 45,062 2004 20
23 Toyota Yaris 42,638 2009 26
24 Nissan Sunny 41,684 1992 21
25 Honda Civic 40,971 1995 20

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

Categories: Germany
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