Netherlands March 2015: Renault Clio takes charge, C4 Cactus #11

The Renault Clio is now #1 in 2015 year-to-date in the Netherlands.

* See the Top 40 All-brands and Top 253 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Dutch new car market has been heavily skewed by preferential pricing attributed to the most eco-friendly variants of some models, and this for the past 3 years. This pricing impacts not just the car but also the overall amount of tax the car buyer is paying and can mean a model goes from no sale one month to #1 the next as one variant entered the preferential pricing list. Case in point: the Kia Picanto, Suzuki Alto, Toyota Aygo, Yaris and Renault Twingo, the Top 5 best-selling vehicle in the country in February, are down to #94, #107, #66, #38 and #59 respectively this month! The overall market is stable at -1% year-on-year in March to 29,030 registrations, bringing the year-to-date total to 110,148 units, up 3% on 2014. Volkswagen is back to its traditional pole position in the brands ranking with 11.1% share, followed by Opel at a particularly strong 9.3% (vs. 5.8% year-to-date), Renault at 8.7%, Peugeot at 7.2% and Nissan up 29% to #5 and 6.7%.

The Citroen C4 Cactus missed out on a Top 10 ranking for just 13 units.

The Renault Clio becomes the most popular nameplate in the Netherlands both in March with 1,245 sales and 4.3% but also year-to-date at 4,112 units and 3.7%. The rest of the year-to-date Top 4 is 100% Volkswagen: the Polo is #2 at 3.6%, the Golf #3 at 3.6% also and the Up is #4 at 3.3%. The Opel Corsa is up a mammoth 23 spots on February to land in 2nd place thanks to the new model, the Nissan Qashqai is up 8 to #6, the Citroen C4 Cactus is up 5 to a record 11th place, missing out on a historical Top 10 ranking for just 14 units and delivering stronger performances than at home in France, the Nissan Note is up 42 ranks to #15, the Opel Mokka up 12 to #18, the Nissan Juke up 13 to #29, Tesla Model S up 71 to #33, BMW 2 Series Active Tourer up 14 to #36, Nissan Pulsar up 38 to #39 and the Fiat 500X breaks into the Dutch Top 50 for the first time at #42 vs. #177 in February.

Previous month: Netherlands February 2015: Kia Picanto and Suzuki Alto shoot to top

One year ago: Netherlands March 2014: Renault Captur breaks into Top 5

Full March 2015 Top 40 All-brands and Top 253 All-models below.