Spain January 2015: Seat Leon #1 with VW Golf in tow

The Seat Leon is the best-selling nameplate in Spain this month, just above the VW Golf.

* See the Top 45 All-brands and Top 279 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Spanish new car market starts the year all guns blazing: up a flamboyant 28% year-on-year in January  to 68,519 registrations, the best January score since 2010. Down to #3 in December, Volkswagen reclaims the brands top spot it held over the Full Year 2014 thanks to 6,631 sales and 9.7% share, more than two percentage points above Seat at 7.6% (+37%). Renault more than doubles its sales year-on-year to land in third place with 7% share ahead of Ford (+76%) and Opel (+24%) while Peugeot marks a pause at -2%. In the Top 20, Nissan (+46%), Dacia (+44%), Mercedes (+59%), Kia (+60%) and Fiat (+55%) all outperform the market, while Porsche (+68%), Lexus (+98%), Mitsubishi (+134%) and Jeep (+155%) also deliver splendid performances further down.

Don’t believe the picture: the VW Tiguan outsells the Nissan Qashqai in January.

The Seat Leon confirms in January the pole position it held for the first time annually in 2014, however this month the VW Golf is only 41 units below and the Seat Ibiza 100 sales away… The Renault Mégane at #4 and Dacia Sandero at #5 are strong, with the Toyota Auris lodging an outstanding 7th place and the VW Tiguan up to an all-time high #9 thanks to 1,331 sales and 1.9%, and outselling its main competitor the Nissan Qashqai (#10) in what is only its second time inside the Spanish Top 10 after January 2014 (#10). The Citroen C4 Cactus is back up 30 spots on December to land at a record 20th place – exactly the same ranking as in its home country, France.

Wrong again: the Citroen C4 Cactus trails the Renault Captur by just 65 sales this month.

Other great performers inside the Top 50 include the Toyota Yaris up to #14 and Dacia Duster up to #16, with Audi aligning 3 nameplates in the Top 25: the A3 at #17 vs. #24 in 2014, the A1 at #22 vs. #37 and the A4 at #24 vs. #41. The Mercedes C-Class is up 18 spots on December to #28 and the Mercedes GLA brilliantly maintains itself among Spain’s 35 favourite nameplates at #33. Among recent launches, notice the Nissan Pulsar stepping out of the Top 50, down 20 ranks on December to #58, the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer taking off at #78 (+25), the Lexus NX300h managing a second consecutive month in the Top 100 and the Smart Forfour up 22 spots to #107.

Previous post: Spain Full Year 2014: First ever year of reign for the Seat Leon

Previous month: Spain December 2014: Seat Leon, Ibiza and Nissan Qashqai on top

One year ago: Spain January 2014: VW Golf and Dacia Sandero dominate

Full January 2015 Top 45 All-brands and Top 279 All-models below.