France Private Sales January-October 2014: Two Dacias in Top 7

The Dacia Sandero is the third best-selling model to private French consumers.

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

Thanks to French magazine Auto Plus today I can share with you exclusive Private Sales (PS) rankings for France. A private new car sale is one done to a private buyer as opposed to companies, fleet and short or long-term rentals. Over the first 10 months of 2014, 775.590 new cars were sold to private consumers in France or 51.9% of the overall market, a rate that has never been so low. Brand-wise, if the lead trio is unchanged with very similar PS ratios (Renault at 46.5%, Peugeot at 48.6% and Citroen at 49.8%), the big surprise is Dacia shooting up to 4th place overall with 75,000 private sales and almost 10% market share, thanks to an astounding 85.8% PS ratio, consistent with the brand’s Spanish and German PS scores. Volkswagen (54.5%) and Ford (57.3%) follow with PS ratios slightly higher than the average while Toyota is frankly above at 64.8% and Audi frankly below at 47.5%. Note the Top 10 brands are identical to the overall market.

The VW Polo is the only foreigner in the Private Sales Top 10 with a strong 70% PS ratio.

The Renault Clio IV remains the most popular model with French private buyers, but just: at a very low 43.7% PS ratio, it is only 493 sales above the Peugeot 208 (53.5%) whereas the gap between the two best-sellers is 17.000 units in the overall market. The Dacia Sandero brilliantly shoots up from #9 overall to third place in the private sales ranking with 33,535 units and an out-of-this-world 88.4% PS ratio. In fact Dacia manages to place a 2nd model within the Top 7: the Duster with 27,452 sales and a 82.3% PS ratio. Notice also the Peugeot 2008 breathing on the Renault Captur’s neck in the same way the 208 is to the Clio thanks to a 64.8% PS ratio vs. 56.9% for the Captur, the VW Polo up to #8 thanks to almost 70% of private sales and the Peugeot 308 posting the weakest PS ratio in the Top 10 at 38.1%.

Previous post: France October 2014: Now with Top 300 models and All-brands

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