Finland May 2018: VW Golf best-seller for first time in 19 months

The VW Golf is the best-seller in Finland for only the third time in 3 years.

* See the Top 30 best-selling brands models by clicking on the title *

New car sales in Finland surge 13.1% year-on-year in May to 12.261 registrations, leading to a year-to-date volume up a robust 8% to 57.195 units. In the brands ranking, Toyota (+16%) holds onto the top spot by the smallest of margins: 1 sale above Volkswagen (+18%) while Skoda (+10%) reclaims the #3 spot it holds YTD off Ford (+24%). Opel (+40%) posts the largest gain in the Top 10 but all other brands underperform except Volvo (+13%) matching the market. Further down, Citroen (+149%), Subaru (+123%), Peugeot (+106%), Honda (+79%), Lexus (+70%), Hyundai (+50%), Jaguar (+39%), Alfa Romeo (+38%), Dacia (+38%), Fiat (+35%) and Seat (+23%) all impress whereas Mini (-54%), BMW (-33%), Tesla (-33%), Renault (-20%) and Mazda (-16%) struggle.

Model-wise, the VW Golf lurches up 8 spots on April and 19% year-on-year to snap the pole position for the first time since October 2016 and only the third time in the past 3 years along with June 2015. It still ranks at a lowly #5 year-to-date vs. #3 in FY2017. The Skoda Octavia (-2%) is knocked down to #2 with the Toyota Auris (+21%) and Ford Fiesta (+95%) breathing on its neck and both posting very solid gains. Other great performers include the Citroen C3 (+300%), Nissan Micra (+195%), Volvo XC60 (+137%), Mercedes GLC (+119%), Opel Insignia (+107%), Hyundai i20 (+108%), Skoda Kodiaq (+84%), Toyota RAV4 (+75%), Ford Focus (+36%) and Toyota C-HR (+36%).

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Full May 2018 Top 30 brands and models below.