Europe 5 months 2014: Opel Astra rebounds

The Opel Astra is back up two spots to #11 year-to-date in Europe.

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 350 best-selling models and Top 60 brands! *

As is the tradition on BSCB we now spend some time studying the year-to-date rankings for Europe in order to extract longer-term trends. As the year progresses the models ranking cements itself and large month-on-month variations become rarer. Proof: there are no ranking changes inside the year-to-date Top 10 compared to last month, with the Ford Focus getting ever closer to the Peugeot 208 in the fight for the 6th place and the Skoda Octavia dangerously catching up its sales deficit with the Nissan Qashqai for 8th position. The first move happens, like last month, just outside the Top 10 at #11 where the Opel Astra, thanks to a stable month of May, regains two spots to rank #11, overtaking the Fiat 500 (#12) and BMW 3 Series (#13).

Fiat Panda

Further down, the Fiat Panda takes advantage of a particularly weak month of the Renault Captur to regain the #16 spot, the VW Passat passes the Dacia Sandero at #18 and the Peugeot 2008 is back inside the Top 20 at #20, above the Citroen C3. The Peugeot 308 (#22), VW Up (#23), Seat Leon (#25) and Audi A4 (#29) also progress while the Citroen C4 Picasso (#28) drops one spot but is up 73% year-on-year.

Volvo XC60 sales are up 35% so far in Europe this year.

Other great year-on-year increases inside the Top 100 include the Opel Mokka at #34 (+56%), Skoda Rapid at #55 (+127%), Nissan Note at #60 (+140%), Mazda CX-5 at #72 (+39%), Volvo XC60 at #76 (+35%), Toyota RAV4 at #81 (+32%), Opel Adam at #84 (+42%) and Dacia Logan at #85 (+205%). As far as all-new models are concerned, notice the BMW 4 Series at #95, Suzuki SX4 Cross at #104, Mercedes GLA at #121, Tesla Model S at #179, BMW 2 Series at #181 and Porsche Macan at #185.

Dacia is up 36% year-on-year in Europe so far in 2014.

Brand-wise, the entire Top 8 best-sellers are unchanged year-on-year with Volkswagen (+3%) still reigning supreme above Ford (+7%) and Opel (+7% also). Biggest gainers in the Top 30 include Renault (+12%), Peugeot (+8%), Skoda (+19%), Dacia (+36%), Seat (+12%), Mazda (+25%), Suzuki (+13%) and Porsche (+14%), with Jeep (+36%), Lexus (+34%), Maserati (+395%) and Infiniti (+61%) also shining further down.

Previous post: Europe May 2014: Discover the Top 50 models and Top 57 brands

Previous month: Europe 4 months 2014: Fiat 500 inches closer to Top 10 at #11

One year ago (brands): Europe May 2013: Worst May in 20 years

One year ago (models): Europe May 2013: Peugeot 208 on podium, Nissan Qashqai up 11%

Full 5 months 2014 Top 350 models and Top 60 brands Ranking Tables below.