World Full Year 2012: Discover the Top 40 best-selling French cars

The 2nd generation Renault Clio survives in South America as the Clio Mio.

* See the Top 40 best-selling French models by clicking on the title! Thanks Austin *

The original World Full Year 2012 Top 1000 is here

Now that we have covered all segments of the 2012 worldwide All-models ranking, I thought I would slice it up by nationality. Being born in France I have special connection to that country so why don’t we start with it. And the first striking element that comes up when looking at the best-selling French cars in the world is how low they are in the ranking. French superminis (Renault 5, Peugeot 205 and 206) used to rank very high worldwide mainly thanks to their European sales but as that region stagnated for the last couple of decades, French models have plunged.

The Renault Duster launched successfully in Russia and India in 2012.

There are no Frenchies within the Top 30 most popular cars on the planet, and the best-seller is the Renault Clio/Symbol at #32 with 427,931 sales, keeping in mind this figure spans 3 different generations. In fact Renault places 4 models in the Top 4 French ranking but the other 3 all come from the Dacia low-cost range, which in itself is a very interesting development: the Logan ranks #41 overall with 373,819 sales, the Sandero is #59 at 299,848 and the Duster #61 with 295,096 units. Note that for 2013 Logan and Sandero sales will be combined as they are now the sedan and hatchback versions of one single model, and that will most likely place them in the French pole position.

Peugeot 207

The best-selling Peugeot is (for the last time most probably) the 207 in 5th French position and #68 overall with 274,415 sales. However if we were to compare apples with apples with the 3 generations of Clio we should add sales of the Peugeot 208 (#91) and 206 (#173) to come to a total of 617,758, way above the Clio(s). Citroen’s best-seller is the C4, mainly due to the success of the first generation in China, while the C3 ranks #9 French and #99 overall.

Citroen DS5

Further down, notice the Peugeot 405/Pars at #11 French and #101 overall thanks to its prolonged life in Iran, the Renault Kangoo at #12 and #128, Renault Scenic at #13 and #157, Citroen DS3 at #27 and #280, DS4 at #34 and #414 and DS5 at #39 and #459.

The original World Full Year 2012 Top 1000 is here

Full Year 2012 Top 40 French models Ranking Table below.