Germany November 2014: Mercedes C-Class on podium

The Mercedes C-Class is now leader year-to-date in its segment at home.

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New car sales in Germany are down a disappointing 2% year-on-year in November to 250,082 registrations: the road to recovery still has a few chicanes ahead. Year-to-date, German sales are up 3% on 2013 to 2,807,073 units. In the brands ranking, if Volkswagen at #1 (-3%) and Audi at #3 (-4%) roughly follow the market, Mercedes at #2 (+1%), BMW at #4 (+2%) and Opel at #5 (+1%) buck the trend and post positive results. Ford (-9%), Kia (-11%), Toyota (-12%) and Peugeot (-20%) suffer while Subaru (+63%), Jeep (+53%), Mitsubishi (+44%), Porsche (+35%) and Volvo (+14%) are in great shape. Boosted by the new Sportsvan variant still counted within the nameplate’s sales, the VW Golf remains at stratospheric heights atop the models ranking with 9.9% share above the VW Polo up a solid 9% to 3.1% in 2nd place.

The Opel Mokka breaks its ranking, volume and market share records at home this month…

The Mercedes C-Class is up a splendid 55% on November 2013 to climb onto the German podium for first time since June 2012 and only the second time in the past 3 years at #3 with 6,883 sales. It overtakes its archenemy the BMW 3 Series year-to-date at #6 and 54,708 sales vs. 51,978. The 3 Series is hit full frontal by the success of the new generation C-Class: it is down a very painful 36% year-on-year to a paltry 15th place, its lowest Germany ranking since July 2012. Despite sales down 25% YOY, the Skoda Octavia is back inside the Top 10 most popular nameplates in Germany at #9.

…even outselling the Opel Astra for the first time.

The Opel Mokka surges by an astounding 182% year-on-year to reach its best-ever ranking (#17), volume (3,373) and market share (1.3%) at home. For the very first time, it outsells its stablemate the Opel Astra, down 26% to #21 and 3,113 units. In fact, this is only the second time the Astra nameplate – once upon a time the Golf’s biggest threat for the overall Germany pole position –  sinks outside the monthly Top 20 this year and ever after January (#25). More bad news for the Astra: this month it is outsold by the Seat Leon for only the second time in history after last August, meaning it is outsold by all its Volkswagen Group competitors: the Golf, Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon.

First Top 50 ranking in Germany for the Renault Captur

Notice also the BMW X1 up 92% YOY to #19, the Hyundai i20 up 51% to #29, Renault Twingo up 26% to #32 and Hyundai i10 up 20 spots on October to #34. The Renault Captur breaks into the German Top 50 for the first time at #49 and the BMW 2 Series is boosted by the Active Tourer MPV variant up to a best-ever #52 with 1,395 sales. As always, German car buyers are faithful to their home brands: if we exclude Skoda and Seat, 100% owned by Volkswagen, there are only two true foreigners in the Top 30: the Fiat 500 at #27 and Hyundai i20 at #29.

Suzuki Celerio

Among recent launches, the Smart Forfour takes off, gaining 181 spots on October to #106 with 546 sales, the Jeep Renegade is up a further 22% and 18 spots on last month to #116, the Peugeot 108 is up 27% and 20 ranks to #118, the Nissan Pulsar up 14% and 11 spots to #121, the Suzuki Celerio up 134 ranks to #155 and the Lexus NX300h up 5 to #207. We welcome one all-new entrant in the German sales charts this month: the Lexus RC F landing at #261 with 14 units sold.

Previous month: Germany October 2014: VW Polo and Mercedes C-Class shine

One year ago: Germany November 2013: VW Golf hits highest share in 4 years

Full November 2014 Top 310 models and Top 50 brands Ranking Tables below.