Spain October 2016: Seat Leon leads, Ateca breaks into Top 20

Seat Ateca

* See the Top 43 All-brands and Top 280 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Spanish new car market slows down its unbridled recovery this month at +3.8% year-on-year to 83.733 registrations, the highest October score in Spain since 2009 (98.512), reducing the year-to-date gain to a still very reasonable +10.7% at 963.092 units, the best result after 10 months since 2008 (1.025.983). A more worrying sign is the fact that company sales do the heavy lifting this month with a 11% gain to 27.716 and 33.1% share vs. 30.9% a year ago, rental sales surge 37% to 5.927 and 7.1% share vs. 5.4% but private sales, the real measure of a healthy market, are down 3% to 50.090 and 59.8% share vs. 63.7% a year ago. This is partly because a scrappage scheme expired this month. Year-to-date, private sales also lag behind at +7% to 53.2% share vs. 54.9% over the same period a year ago, while both company and rental sales are up 15% to 27.2% and 19.6% share respectively. Also, according to Faconauto dealerships president Jaume Roura, “Self-registrations counted for approximately 10 percent of the market in October. It cannot become a regular solution to hit sales goals.” I agree but sadly it seems to have become the norm in Europe.

Brand-wise, Renault is up one spot on August to take on the pole position with 8.3% share, distancing Seat (+22%), Peugeot (-8%) and Volkswagen (-6%). Within the Top 10, Opel (+9%), Kia (+20%) and Mercedes (+17%) frankly outpace the market. Outside, Jeep (+33%), Fiat (+37%), Mini (+52%), Maserati (+106%), Jaguar (+126%) and Infiniti (+281%) post the largest year-on-year gains. In the models ranking, the Seat Leon reclaims the pole position it holds year-to-date with sales up 6% to 2.615, followed by the Nissan Qashqai at 2.103 (+15%) and the Seat Ibiza at 2.014 (-7%). The Opel Corsa is up 34% to #5, the Dacia Sandero is up 9 spots on September to #6 and the Renault Mégane up 12% to #8. The Seat Ateca leads new launches head and shoulder, ip 9 spots on last month to #17, ahead of the Fiat Tipo (#58), Peugeot 3008 II (#68), Ford Ka+ (#71), Jaguar F-Pace (#101 and Kia Niro (#106). The Audi Q2 (#212), Volvo V90 (#219) and Abarth 124 Spider (#230) make their first appearance in the Spanish ranking this month.

Previous month: Spain September 2016: Clio and Polo lead, Seat Ateca up to #26

One year ago: Spain October 2015: Peugeot leads, Hyundai Tucson up to #15

Full October 2016 Top 43 All-brands and Top 280 All-models below.