Germany 6 months 2013: BMW 3 Series back on podium

BMW 3 Series

* See the Top 300 All-models and Top 50 brands by clicking on the title! *

New car sales in Germany are down a painful 8% year-on-year halfway through 2013 to 1,502,630 registrations, meaning it is now the #5 market in the world, passed by Brazil. The VW Golf unsurprisingly keeps the pole position and loses slightly less ground than the market overall thanks to the arrival of the 7th generation, resulting in a market share improved to 7.9% at 118,224 sales. But the two next best-selling VWs are definitely going down: the Passat drops by 21% to 2.5% share but stays #2 while the Polo is at -20% and steps out of the podium at #4.

The Mercedes A-Class delivers by far the best progression in the Top 10: +20 spots and 73%.

The BMW 3 Series, boosted by the new model, is up 3 spots and 5% year-on-year to reintegrate the German podium at #3 with 35,498 sales. If it manages to keep this position until the end of the year, it will be the first time since 2007 the 3 Series is among the Top 3 best-sellers in Germany. The VW Tiguan is up a mere 4% but an impressive 6 ranks on last year to #5, illustrating the further fragmentation of the German market.

Audi A3 sales are up 18% so far in 2013 in Germany.

Two premium compact cars recently renewed are setting the sales charts on fire: the Audi A3 is up 13 spots and 18% to #6 at 28,102 units while the Mercedes A-Class is up an even more impressive 20 ranks and 73% to #10 with 26,153 sales. However we have seen with the Private Sales rankings that only the A-Class is a success with private buyers. Notice also the Opel Astra down 5 ranks and 37% to #9 and the Audi A4 back up 6 to #11. There is now only one ‘foreigner’ in the German Top 20 vs. 2 last year: the Skoda Octava is down 4 ranks to #19. The Skoda Fabia follows at #22 (-2), ahead of the Seat Ibiza at #25 (+6) and Hyundai i30 stable at #26.

The Seat Leon is up 56%.

Further down, notice the Seat Leon up 56% and 25 spots to #28 (including Altea and Toledo sales), the Fiat 500 up 33% to #31 thanks to the 500L, the Kia Cee’d up 51% and 20 ranks to #47, VW Beetle up 195% to #48, Ford B-Max up to #52, Mercedes GLK up 24% to #53, Dacia Sandero up 29% to #54, Toyota Auris up 54% to #55 and Peugeot 208 up 139% to #56 which is actually rather disappointing.

The Opel Mokka is the best performing all-new model but still relatively shy at #42 and 0.7%.

There are only 3 all-new models in the German Top 100 over the period: the Opel Mokka leads the way at a still very shy #42 with 10,883 sales and 0.7%, followed by the Opel Adam at #45 with 10,170 units and 0.7% and the Mercedes CLA at #75 with 5,214 sales and 0.3%. Brand-wise, Volkswagen is down 9% to 21.6%, Mercedes down 3% but improves to 9.4% share, Audi down 5% to an improved 8.5% and BMW down 8% to 7.9%. Seat is up a whopping 30% and 5 spots to #10, Kia up 5% and 3 to #13 and Dacia up 9% and one to #17.

Previous post: Germany June 2013: Mercedes E-Class at highest in almost 2 years

One year ago: Germany 6 months 2012: Mercedes C-Class and Audi A6 pull market up

Full 6 months 2013 Top 300 All-models and Top 50 brands Ranking Table below.