Germany: Nameplates Records now updated with 2016 data

January 15, 2017
Matt Gasnier

The VW Golf sold 414,132 units in Germany in 1992 – a record year.

* Click on the title for the Top 40 best-selling nameplates & Top 40 foreign nameplates *

We can now share with you an updated ranking of the the best-selling nameplates in Germany, ranked based on their record year in volume since data collection began in 1946. Only three nameplates managed to deliver at least one year above 300.000 sales over the entire period: the VW Golf, Beetle and Opel Astra, and only six were above 200.000: adding the Opel Kadett, VW Passat and Mercedes W123. One foreign model managed to crack the 100,000 annual unit-barrier: the Skoda Fabia.

Check out 70 years worth of German Historical data here

The VW Beetle’s record year was 1961 with 348,929 sales

Among foreign models, the Renault 19 is #2 with a record 97.262 units in 1991 but it never managed to break into the annual German Top 10, peaking at #11 in 1992. The legendary Renault 4 is #3 and was the best-selling import in Germany for a whopping 14 consecutive years between 1967 and 1980, peaking at 84.900 sales in 1970 for an estimated 5th place overall that year. This is estimated to the be the highest annual ranking ever hit by a foreign nameplate in Germany, equalled by the Skoda Fabia in 2009.

The Renault 4 was the best-selling import in Germany without interruption from 1967 to 1980

Peugeot is also very well represented with the 206 holding the record for the brand’s highest single model annual sales volume at 63.426 units in 2003 (#12), ahead of the 205 (61.220 in 91) and 207 (58.222 in 09). Fiat’s highest seller is the Punto with 60.197 units in 1995. The Toyota Corolla leads all Japanese models with a high of 52.870 in 1991, followed by the Mazda 323 and 626.

The Skoda Octavia beats its annual volume record in Germany in 2016.