Italy Station Wagons June 2013: BMW 3 Series almost best-seller

BMW 3 Series Touring

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

As is the tradition on BSCB, before we explore the overall Italian new car market we first have a look at the station wagons (SW) segment as it displays some very interesting trends. As a whole and as it is the case in the rest of Europe, SWs are struggling this year, with sales down 9% year-on-year in June to 9,014 registrations, however the SW market share this month (7.4%) is significantly higher than year-to-date (6.6%). The Ford Focus reclaims the segment’s pole position both in June with 960 sales (+19%) and year-to-date at 4,967 units (-38%) but there is one star in the ranking this month and it’s the BMW 3 Series, up a whopping 382% on June 2012 to reach 945 sales and an excellent 2nd place. It is now #3 year-to-date at 4,643 units, up 122% on 2012.

Opel Insignia Sports Tourer

Further down, two models reach unbelievable SW ratios and it is worth spending a little bit of time going through it. In 6th place the Opel Insignia sells 574 units of the “Sports Tourer” station wagon version, meaning only 37 units of the sedan version found a buyer in Italy this month, giving it a 94% SW ratio! Even better, the VW Passat sells 543 “Variant” station wagons vs. just 31 sedans for a 95% SW ratio. What this means it these two models would probably have already been dropped of their manufacturers’ Italian range if it weren’t for their station wagon versions. In a context were station wagons are a thing of the past in most European countries, these splits are remarkable and very specific to Italy.

Previous month: Italy Station Wagons May 2013: Renault Clio now in Top 10

One year ago: Italy Station Wagons June 2012: Renault Megane up to #2

Full June 2013 Top 10 Ranking Table below.