Sweden August 2013: VW Passat beats all Volvos to rank #1!

VW Passat

* See the Top 60 best-selling models and Top 34 All-brands by clicking on the title! *

New car sales in Sweden are up a shy 3% year-on-year in August to 21,616 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 168,677 units, down 7% on 2012. Huge surprise in pole position: for the first time since August 2010 when the VW Golf was #1, it’s not a Volvo at #1: the VW Passat is the most popular vehicle in Sweden this month thanks to 1,270 sales and 5.9% vs. an exceptionally low 1,127 units and 5.2% for the Volvo V70. This is an extremely rare event that I have only seen occur twice in the last decade, including this month. Given Volvo and Saab used to be more dominant at home, these may well be the only two times a Swedish model hasn’t topped the monthly sales charts in Sweden…

The VW Golf is the only other non-Swedish nameplate to have topped the Swedish charts (ever?).

Volvo is traditionally weaker in August because of summer holidays but this year it even comes down to #2 brand below Volkswagen. Illustrating this move, the VW Golf is up one spot on July to #3 with 992 sales and 4.6% while the Volvo S/V60 is down one to #4 and the Volvo V40 down 3 to #8. Other great performers this month include the BMW 3 Series up to a brilliant 5th position, the Toyota Auris up 8 ranks to #6, the VW Polo up 11 to #10, Renault Clio up 18 to #12, Audi A3 up 11 to #17, Mercedes E Class up 7 to #20, Nissan Micra up to #25 vs. #66 year-to-date, the Kia Rio up 28 to #30, Ford Mondeo up to #38 and the Dacia Duster further up to a best-ever #41.

Previous month: Sweden July 2013: Peugeot 208 breaks into Top 10 for the first time

One year ago: Sweden August 2012: VW Passat threatens Volvo V70, V40 at #23

Full August 2013 Top 60 models and Top 34 brands Ranking Tables below.