Spain 1996: Seat Ibiza in pole position for the second time

The Seat Ibiza scores its 2nd ever annual win at home.

Very solid year for Spanish new car sales up 9% year-on-year to 900.278 registrations. After a freak interruption last year, Renault (+4.9%) reclaims the brands top spot in Spain off Ford (-8.5%), marking an 11th win in the past 12 years. Opel (-1.3%), Seat (+5%), Peugeot (+11.2%), Citroen (+28.2%) and Volkswagen (+23.4%) ensure the rest of the Top 8 is unchanged on 1995. Daewoo (+75.3%), Hyundai (+53%), Honda (+39.5%), BMW (+31.8%), Mercedes (+24.5%), Audi (+20%) and Rover (+20%) all impress further down. Citroen (+21.9%) reclaims the #1 spot in the LCV brands ranking above Nissan (+10.4%) and Ford (-13.6%).

The Citroen ZX is back up to #4.

In the models ranking, the Seat Ibiza (+8.5%) takes the lead of its home ranking for only the second time in history alongside 1987, knocking down the Ford Escort (-5.8%) and Fiesta (-12.3%) to #2 and #3 respectively. The Citroen ZX (+13.8%) leaps back up 4 spots to #4, the Opel Corsa (-15.1%) is down two to #5 and the Renault Megane brilliantly ends its first full year of sales in 6th place with 4.4% share, instantly becoming the brand’s best-seller in Spain just above the Clio (-3.1%). The VW Polo (+71.2%) continues to progress, breaking into the Top 10 for the first time and toppling the Golf (+3.1%) as the brand’s best-seller. The Citroen Saxo (#17) is the most successful new launch of 1996.

Hyundai Accent

For the first time in Spain, the best-selling Asian model is not Japanese but Korean: it’s the Hyundai Accent (+83.9%) up 4 spots to #28 and one of 4 Koreans (vs. 6 Japanese) in the Top 50: the Daewoo Nexia is #33, the Daewoo Aranos (aka Espero) is #38 and the Hyundai Lantra is #46. The #1 Japanese is the Nissan Primera at #31. The Renault Express (-5%) reclaims the LCV top spot off the Citroen C15 (-17.4%).

Full 1996 Top 50 All-brands, Top 280 All-models, Top 35 All LCV brands and Top 115 All LCV models vs. Full 1995 figures below.