West Germany 1974: Mercedes ‘Strich 8’ surprise best-seller

Mercedes Strich 8

* See ‘Read more’ for the Top 100 best-selling models! Thanks DC & Florian for the data *

Another trip down memory lane today, this time to West Germany in 1974, which is a relatively weak year in terms of sales volume at 1,662,384 registrations. For the first time since 1938, it is not a Volkswagen that tops the models ranking but a Mercedes! Taking advantage of a changeover year between the Beetle and the Golf, the Mercedes Strich 8 finishes the year in pole position with 140,127 sales and 8.4% share, up 2 spots and 3% on 1973.

VW Passat

The VW Passat flamboyantly takes the 2nd spot for its first full year of sales in the country at 132,988 units and 8%, ahead of the Opel Kadett, up 2 spots and 3% with 127,457 sales and 7.7%. The VW Beetle falls by 49% to 4th position at 121,511 units and 7.3% and is followed by the Opel Rekord (-42%) and Audi 80 (-39%).

Datsun Cherry

1974 sees the birth of the legendary VW Golf, landing directly in 7th place with 71,403 sales and 4.3% share. The BMW “-02” holds well at #10 and 45,241 units and the Renault 4 still best-selling foreign model at #11 with 44,526 sales. The Renault 5 takes the 2nd spot at #18, followed by the Fiat 128 (#19) and Simca 1100 (#20).

Further down the ranking, notice the Citroen 2CV at #22, the Peugeot 504 at #23, the Datsun Cherry best-selling Japanese model at #49 with 4,829 sales, followed by the Datsun 1200 (#50), Toyota Corolla (#56) and Datsun Bluebird (#70).

Previous post: see the West Germany 1971-1973 article here.

Next post: see the West Germany 1975 article here.

Full Year 1974 Top 100 Ranking Table below.