Europe March 2014: Fiat 500 inside Top 10 for the first time

Fiat 500

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The good news keep pouring in (at last!) for the European new car market: up 10% year-on-year in March to deliver a 7th consecutive month of year-on-year growth at 1,489,796 units. The First Quarter is up 8% on 2013 to 3,353,180 sales. Traditionally March sales are biased by strong seasonal UK sales at 31% of overall European sales vs. 18% over FY2013. As a result, the Ford Fiesta is a comfortable #2 at 44,491 sales, passing the VW Polo and Renault Clio year-to-date to also rank #2, the Vauxhall/Opel Corsa is up to #3 at 33,563 units, the Ford Focus up to #5 and 30,743 sales and the Vauxhall/Opel Astra up to #9 and 24,016 units – 8% higher than its March 2013 score.

VW Golf sales are up 14% year-on-year in March.

Not satisfied with being once again and by far the best-selling model on the continent, the VW Golf also delivers the 2nd best year-on-year improvement in the Top 10 at +14% to 56,042 sales and +15% year-to-date at 129,559 units. The biggest gainer is the Fiat 500, boosted by strong results in the UK (monthly volume record), Germany, France and Italy and up 19% year-on-year to #10 with an all-time high 21,990 sales. This is the first time the Fiat Nuova 500 breaks into the European Top 10, an astounding 7 years after being first introduced to the public! Such a late blooming is extremely rare in nowadays car industry and is a testament to the consistently positive word-of-mouth the model has benefitted from throughout its career so far.

The new Qashqai and Note push Nissan up to #10 this month.

Brand-wise, unsurprisingly Volkswagen keeps the lead with 164,724 sales and 11.1% while Ford at #2 (+13%) and Vauxhall/Opel at #3 (+15%) outperform the market and reclaim the same ranks year-to-date. Renault is up a beautiful 23% to 95,987 sales but drops to #4 year-to-date like in 2013 while Peugeot is up 13% in 5th place. Notice also Nissan up 15% to #10 vs. #13 year-to-date, Skoda is up 20% to #12, Dacia up a huge 51% to #16 (+41% year-to-date), Mazda up 26% to #19 and Suzuki up 21% to #21.

Previous post: Europe 2 months 2013: Audi A3 and Renault Captur blitz up

Check also: Europe February 2014: Discover the Top 343 All-models!

Previous month (models): Europe February 2014: Skoda Octavia up 39%, Fiat Panda in Top 10

Previous month (brands): Europe February 2014: Renault and Peugeot on podium

One year ago: Europe March 2013: Nissan Qashqai and BMW 3 Series strike again

Full March 2014 Top 10 models and Top 30 brands Ranking Tables below.