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Europe 4 months 2014: Fiat 500 inches closer to Top 10 at #11

Fiat 500 Europe April 2014. Picture courtesy of quattroruote.itFiat Abarth 500 (US model shown)

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Now that we have explored in detail the European models ranking for April we look into the evolution of the year-to-date sales charts to extract longer-term trends. As the year progresses the models ranking cements itself and large month-on-month variations become rarer. Illustrating this, the highest year-to-date ranking change this month is outside the Top 10: after breaking into the monthly European Top 10 for the first time in March and helped by another impressive month (#11 in April), the Fiat 500 passes the BMW 3 Series to establish itself at #11 year-to-date, the highest the Nuova 500 ever ranked in a year-to-date European ranking, an outstanding performance given this car is almost 7 years old! The Top 10 is still a fair distance away though: the Audi A3 is 7,000 sales above and regularly beats the 500 in the monthly charts.

Citroen C3 Europe April 2014. Picture courtesy of L'ArgusThe Citroen C3 is back inside the Top 20 this month.

Reaching a best-ever #12 in April earns the VW Tiguan to improve its year-to-date ranking by two spots to #15 with 55,341 sales (+15%), kicking the Fiat Panda down two to #17 (-8%) while the Renault Captur remains at a very impressive #16. Catching up on lost time as 2013 was disrupted by strikes at its French factory, the Citroen C3 overtakes the Peugeot 2008 to reclaim a spot inside the European Top 20 at #20. Other notable changes inside the Top 50 include the BMW 1 Series (#22) and Peugeot 308 (#23) both up one rank, the Renault Mégane up 3 to #26, the Dacia Duster up two to #29, Seat Leon up one to #31, Mercedes A-Class down 4 to #32 and Renault Scénic up 3 to #36.

Skoda Rapid Europe April 2014Skoda Rapid

Further down, the Skoda Rapid is slowly but surely creeping up the ladder, up a further 3 spots this month to #57 and could potentially break into the YTD Top 50 in the next couple of months, making it 3 Skodas in the Top 50 after the Octavia (#9) and Fabia (#34). The Nissan Note could do the same: it is up a massive 135% year-on-year in Europe so far this year at #60, while its little sister the Micra is up a more modest but still impressive 53% at #63. Interesting bounce of the Volvo XC60 at +39% to #77, a more logical one for the Toyota RAV4 given the new model is still finding its mark at +40% at #81 and the Dacia Logan takes advantage of its full revamp to gain 212% and reappear in the Top 100 at #84 even though these figures don’t include Russia where it is very strong.

BMW 4er Europe April 2014. Picture courtesy of autobild.deThe BMW 4 Series has not cannibalised the 3 Series so far.

There is one all-new models in the Top 100: the BMW 4 Series lands at #98 with 14,715 sales, definitely more than the 3,560 units the 3 Series has lost over the period. The Suzuki SX4 S-Cross is close enough at #105 (+3%) while the Mercedes GLA should join the Top 100 club very soon: thanks to a #96 ranking in April it gains 25 spots year-to-date to #131 with just under 8,000 sales. Notice also the Mercedes S-Class up 202% to #149, the Toyota Corolla up 265% to #152, Tesla Model S at #179 with 3,458 units and the Maserati Ghibli at #227 and 1,477 sales.

In the brands ranking, Volkswagen continues to reign supreme with 538,738 sales, up 3% on 2013. Among the Top 20 most popular carmakers, only Hyundai loses ground at -3% and 7 brands manage a 10%+ increase year-on-year: Ford (+10%), Renault (+11%), Skoda (+18%), Nissan (+10%), Dacia (+40%), Mazda (+26%) and Suzuki (+17%). Notice also Jeep up 24%, Lexus up 34%, Tesla up 19 spots to #34, Maserati up 425%, Infiniti up 35% and Bentley up 35%.

Previous post: Europe April 2014: Discover the Top 334 models and Top 55 brands

Previous month: Europe First Quarter 2014: Peugeot 2008 in Top 20, Leon above Ibiza

One year ago: Europe April 2013: Audi A3 breaks into Top 10 for the first time!

Full January-April 2014 Top 350 models and Top 60 brands Ranking Tables below.

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