Monaco 6 months 2012: Mercedes, Audi and… Porsche on top!

August 28, 2012
Matt Gasnier

* See the Top 50 All-brands Ranking by clicking on the title! *

* Correction: Fisker sold 4 Karma in Monaco over the period, making it the #43 brand *

Thanks to a secret admirer of BSCB once again I can share with you exclusive sales figures for the Principalty of Monaco, the world’s richest country… Plus given I was there today I will also share a few pics I got! You can see my original post about Monaco here and the 2011 Top 50 brands post here. A full models ranking will come shortly…

The Monegasque car market is very healthy in 2012 at 1,286 registrations, roughly the same level year-on-year while neighbouring France and Italy are down 8% and 20% respectively. After a 2011 ranking biased by the royal wedding that put BMW at #1, the brands ranking is back to normal in Monaco in 2012. Well. ‘Normal’ is probably not the right word.

Mercedes and Monaco flag, August 2012. Picture by my dear Dad.

Mercedes edges out traditional leader Audi over the period for just two sales with 173 units and 13.5% share vs. 171 and 13.3% for Audi, but the most striking event is the third position of Porsche with no less than 100 sales for a massive 7.8% market share! This is by far the brand’s best performance anywhere in the world, and places Porsche just ahead of Volkswagen, #4 at 94 units…

I want that one… (Ferrari California, picture taken by my dear Dad)

In fact, this year the only brands that perform greatly are luxury ones. Land Rover is up one spot vs. 2011 to #9 with 45 sales and 3.5%, but the best is yet to come: Ferrari passes Fiat and Ford to rank at an exceptional 11th place with 36 units sold for an out-of-this-world 2.8% market share…

Bentley Continental (a Swiss one) in Monaco, August 2012

…while Bentley is up 7 ranks to #13 and sells more cars in Monaco in 6 months in 2012 than it did during the entire year 2011: 33 units for a 2.6% market share compared to 1.3% in 2011. McLaren goes from 3 sales in the Full Year 2011 to 9 over the first 6 months 2012, from #40 brand to #24, ahead of Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Opel, Subaru, Jeep or Mitsubishi…

Actually, I’ll just go with that one please! (Lamborghini Aventador)

Among other luxury brands, Maserati is down one spot to #27, Aston Martin down 4 to #28, Rolls Royce down one to #32 but up to 0.5% share, Jaguar down 4 to #36, Lamborghini down 4 to #38 while Bugatti disappears from the ranking altogether.

Fisker Karma in Monaco, August 2012

Another big event over the period in Monaco is the arrival of Fisker in the brands ranking, directly at #43 (along with Jaguar and Jeep) with 4 units of its Karma already sold. And while visiting the Principalty today I spotted two shining new Fisker Karma in the Ferrari dealership…