Europe March 2017: Ford Fiesta ends VW Golf reign

The Ford Fiesta is the best-selling vehicle in Europe for the first time in 7 years.

* See the Top 54 brands and Top 346 models by clicking on the title *

With a bit of delay we can share with you today complete and final March data for Europe 28 countries – excluding Russia and Turkey. It’s a record month in the region with sales up 10.4% to 1.918.140 units, the highest March tally ever recorded, making Europe the second largest region in the world behind just China but above the U.S. The year-to-date total is now up 7.7% to 4.219.911 units. Although all the largest markets recorded healthy increases, this month’s result is heavily skewed by the all-time record month posted in the UK at 562.337 units. The most drastic impact the strength of the UK has this month is the European pole position of its best-seller the Ford Fiesta, thus ending an impressive streak of seven years of monthly wins by the VW Golf: the last time it did not rank #1 in Europe was in March 2010 when the Ford Fiesta also led the way. This month the Fiesta dominates with sales up 12.5% to 47.610 whereas the VW Golf plunges 18.1% to 46.119.

Brand-wise, Volkswagen trails market growth at +2.3% to 183.406 units, as does Opel/Vauxhall in 4th place at +3.3%. On the other hand, Ford (+15.9%), Renault (+14.9%) and Mercedes (+16.9%) outpace the market, the latter confirming its #1 premium ranking ahead of BMW (+8.5%) and Audi (+5%). Further down towards the end of the Top 10 and beyond, Fiat (+16.4%), Nissan (+16.6%) and Toyota (+20.2%) also shine. Among smaller brands, Volvo (+20.2%), Land Rover (+21.7%), Suzuki (+22.1%), Mini (+26.7%), Alfa Romeo (+49%), Jaguar (+73.5%), Maserati (+85%), Tesla (+101.3%), Infiniti (+104.8%) and Aston Martin (+109.3%) make themselves noticed.

Back to the models ranking, where below the Fiesta and Golf both the VW Polo (+18.9%) and Renault Clio (+11.9%) beat the market to round up the Top 4 ahead of the Opel Corsa (+4.8%) and Nissan Qashqai (+15.9%). The Ford Focus (+8.7%) leaps from #16 to #7 thanks to the strength of the UK market, the Opel Astra is up 13.3% to #8 and the Renault Captur is back inside the Top 10 at #10 thanks to sales up 11.4%. New generations boost sales of the VW Tiguan up 76.3% to #11, the Citroen C3 up 62% to #13, the Renault Megane up 62.7% to #20, Mercedes E-Class up 43.4% to #34 and Peugeot 3008 up 126.6% to #34. The Fiat Tipo is up 331% to #36, and the Nissan Micra up 58.1% to #42. Among recent launches, the Toyota C-HR is down 13 spots on last month to #45, the Audi Q2 up two to #62, the Seat Ateca down 11 to #70 and the Ford Ka+ up 8 to #92. This month we welcome the Alfa Romeo Stelvio in the European ranking at #214.

Previous post: Europe February 2017: Discover the Top 340 models and Top 56 brands

Previous month: Europe February 2017: Fiat Panda and Citroen C3 shine, market up 1.2%

One year ago (preliminary): Europe March 2016: Opel Astra and Fiat 500 shine in Top 10

One year ago (final): Europe March 2016: Discover the Top 335 models and All-brands

Full March 2017 Top 54 brands and Top 346 models below.