Italy Station Wagons 2012: Opel Astra edges out Ford Focus

Opel Astra Sports Tourer

* See the Top 10 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

Italians car buyers are some of the last in the world with the Swedish and Slovak to continue their love affair with Station Wagons (SW): most models in the Large segment are sold almost exclusively through that format. This is why there is a regular update about Italian SW sales on BSCB. However 2012 has been a tough year for SW in Italy. Pulled down by a 37% drop in December (vs. -22% for the overall market), sales are down 30% over the Full Year 2012 at 107,304 units vs. -20% for the Italian market, meaning the SW share has gone down from 8.7% in 2011 to 7.6% this year.

Ford Focus

Thanks to a solid performance in December (#1 at 611 units), the Opel Astra ends up being the best-selling Station Wagon in the country for the second year running with 11,506 sales, in spite of a 39% drop on 2011. The Ford Focus led the way for most of the year thanks to the arrival of the new generation but gets pipped out by the Astra at the last minute. It sells 11,490 units for an ok 17% year-on-year drop and increases its SW rate from 50% in 2011 to 60% this year.

The Audi A4 and VW Passat continue to be the Station Wagon kings, with unbelievable SW rates: in December only 62 A4 out of 598 sold were sedans, and only 46 out of 419 Passats… Over the Full Year, the A4 edges out the Passat at the last minute here too, with 9,211 sales (-31%) vs. 9,144 (-29%). The Peugeot 508 makes its first appearance in a Year-end ranking at #6 and 5,403 units for a robust 80% SW rate. Notice also the BMW 3 Series (#3 in December!) down just 14% this year.

Previous month: Italy Station Wagons November 2012: BMW 3 Series up to #5

Previous year: Italy Station Wagons Full Year 2011: Opel Astra passes Ford Focus

Full Year and December 2012 Top 10 Ranking Tables below.