Portugal March 2013: Renault Clio #1, Mercedes A-Class #9!

Mercedes A-Class

* See the Top 10 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Jose *

After going through a brands ranking only for the first 3 months of the year, thanks to Jose I can now share with you the Top 10 most popular models in Portugal for the first Quarter of 2013. Portuguese new car sales seem to have bottomed out, now up a shy 3% year-on-year to 24,147 registrations which compares extremely well against other European countries in financial difficulty (Cyprus -42%, Greece -18% and Ireland -14%). Boosted by its new generation, the Renault Clio is in the lead over the period with 1,231 sales and 5.1%, ahead of the VW Polo at 4.9% and Peugeot 208 at 4.7%.

Leader over the Full Year 2012, the Renault Megane is down to #4 at 1,006 units and 4.2%. Premium models do extremely well once again, for two reasons: sales to companies have fared better than private ones and in crisis times the social classes still able to purchase a new car tend to go for premium categories. In this context, the BMW 3 Series jumps from #15 in 2012 to #8 with 588 sales and 2.4%, the Mercedes A-Class benefits from the new model to take off from #45 to #9 (!) thanks to 576 units and 2.4% while the BMW 1 Series rounds up the Top 10 at #10 with 536 units and 2.2%.

Previous post: Portugal March 2013: Renault and Volkswagen dominate

Previous models ranking: Portugal Full Year 2012: Renault Megane #1 in worst year since 1985

One year ago: Portugal March 2012: Renault Clio leads, BMW 1 Series strong

Full Q1 2013 Top 10 Ranking Table below.