Sweden Full Year 2012: Volvo V70 #1, VW Passat at best ever

VW Passat

* See the Top 100 best-selling models and Top 30 brands by clicking on the title! *

Difficult year for new car sales in Sweden, down 8% on 2011 to 279,478 registrations, the lowest result in 3 years. The Volvo V70 is the most popular model in the country for the 16th year running with 21,822 sales and 7.8% share, down 2% but up from 7.3% last year. The VW Passat improves on an already record year in 2011 to deliver its best performance ever in Sweden, up 1% to 16,263 units and 5.8%, peaking at a huge 8.3% share in February. Volvo S60 and V60 sales are now counted together and rank #3 this year with 14,301 sales and 5.1%, down 10% but hitting a best-ever 8.4% in December.

Kia Cee’d

The VW Golf is down 11% but stays #4 while the Kia Cee’d is up 3% and one spot to #5 at 7,018 units and 2.5%, as is the Volvo XC60 at #6 and 2.3%. The following 3 models are the best performers in the Top 10: the Ford Focus is up 5% and 4 ranks to #7, the BMW 3 Series up 7 and 14% to #8 and the Toyota Yaris is up 12 spots and 32% to #9.

Mercedes GLK

Further down, other great performers include the Peugeot 508 up 66% and 16 ranks to #24, the Hyundai i40 up 108% and splitting its ranking in two at #37, the Kia Rio up 303% and 66 spots to #38, Toyota Prius up 47% and 28 ranks to #48 and the Mercedes GLK up 35% and 26 to #53.

Volvo V40

There are 5 all-new models in the Swedish Top 100 this year, the best-performing being the Volvo V40 landing directly at #25 with 3,296 sales and 1.2%. However the V40 seems to have shown its limits already (down to #9 and 2% in December) and may struggle to reach the Top 10 over the Full Year 2013… The Peugeot 208 arrives at #41, the Subaru XV at #64, the VW Up! at #78 and the VW CC at #90. Finally, notice the Saab 9-3 down 79% to #98 and the Saab 9-5 down 84% to #175.

December post: Sweden December 2012: Volvo S/V60 at highest share ever

Previous year: Sweden Full Year 2011: Volvo V70 leads for the 15th consecutive year

Full Year 2012 Top 100 models and Top 30 brands Ranking Tables below.