France 1-15 January 2014: Market plunges by 18% year-on-year

The Peugeot 3008 is back inside the French Top 10 thanks to its facelift.

* See the Top 10 best-selling models and brands by clicking on the title! Thanks Gege *

The first 2014 car sales figures are here, and we start with France at mid-January. It’s a very bad start of the year for the French new car market, down a harsh 18% on the same period in 2013. This is the result of a large volume of sales being brought forward to last December in order to benefit from particularly enticing 2013 promotions, but also in anticipation of a tax rate hike due early this year. Brand-wise, Peugeot is in the lead with sales down just 5% and placing 4 models inside the Top 10 vs. just one for Renault, down 34% to #3 below Citroen (-9%). Nissan is back up to #7, Audi up to #8 vs. #10 over the Full Year 2013 and BMW up to #10 vs. #13.

The Citroen C4 Picasso II is up to #4 so far in January in France.

The Peugeot 208 is the best-selling model in the country for now but is down 22% to 2,100 sales, it is followed by the Citroen C3 brilliantly up 1% to 1,797 sales and the Dacia Sandero down 5% to climb onto the podium at #3. Excellent performance of the Citroen C4 Picasso II in 4th position with 1,155 sales, 4 more thanks the Renault Clio IV. The VW Golf VII is the most popular foreign model so far at #6, while the Peugeot 308 II reaches its highest ranking yet at #7, above the Peugeot 2008 solid at #8 and the Peugeot 3008 back inside the Top 10 at #9 thanks to its facelift.

Previous post: France Full Year 2013: Renault Clio IV marks 15 years of Clio at #1

Previous month: France December 2013: Citroen C3 above Peugeot 208 for the first time

Previous weekly post: France 1-12 December 2013: Two Volkswagens in Top 5

Full 1-15 January 2014 Top 10 models and brands Ranking Tables below.