Europe September 2011: Nissan Qashqai in Top 10 UPDATED

The Lamborghini Aventador makes its first appearance in the ranking at #305 with 22 sales.

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 309 best-selling models! – see ‘Read more’, thanks Lancia Lover *

Car sales in Europe are up 0.8% year-on-year in September at 1,266,521 registrations, bringing the 2011 total to 10,424,616 units, down 0.8%. The country mix is heavily biased towards the UK traditionally in September (being one of the 2 yearly new licence plates months) and this has an impact on the models ranking. The VW Golf is unassailable in pole position with 47,731 sales and 3.8% share, up 8% year-on-year, reinforcing its 2011 leadership at 372,288 units and 3.6%.

Nissan Qashqai

The Ford Fiesta is up 2 spots on August to #2 at a strong 2.8% share and reclaims the 2011 #2 position from the VW Polo, down to #4 this month. The Opel Corsa, helped by its English score, ranks 3rd at 2.7%. The Ford Focus is down 2 spots on last month at #5 but improves its market share to a very respectable 2.5% thanks to 31,421 sales.

The VW Passat continues its good run in 8th place at 24,633 units, up 53% year-on-year. For the first time since July 2010 and only the second time ever, the Nissan Qashqai manages to rank within the European Top 10 at #10 with 20,140 sales and 1.6% share. For the first time since June 2006 (the model was launched in April 2006), the Peugeot 207 is out of the Top 10.

BMW 6 Series

Further down the 9 months 2011 ranking, the Nissan Juke is the best-selling newcomer at #40 and in the premium small car category notice the Mini at #35 (-12%), the Audi A1 at #41 and the Citroen DS3 at #56. The Audi A7 is up a massive 110 spots over 2010 to #134, the Mercedes CLS is up 86 spots to #143 and the BMW 6 Series is up 31 ranks to #230.

As far as Chinese models are concerned, the DR1 leads the way again at #245 (-4%) but is now followed by the Great Wall Hover at #265 (up 57 spots and 105% on 2010), the DR5 at #272 (-65%) and the Great Wall Steed at #273 (-41%).

Previous month: see the European August 2011 Top 10 best-selling models here.

Full September 2011 Top 309 Ranking Table below.