Here's an article I found with regards to last years sales...
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Western Europe Sales 2004
by David Finlay (25 Jan 05)
Research by industry information experts JATO (
www.jato.com) show that car sales in western Europe reached 14,775,541 in 2004, up 1.64% on the previous year's figure and comparing favourably with the situation in the UK, where sales fell slightly.
The top-selling model overall was the Volkswagen Golf, a statistic which throws into sharp relief the early claims that the new Mk V version was going to be far less successful than the outgoing Mk IV. In fact Golf sales were up 10.7% on 2003, and the car easily knocked the Peugeot 206 off the top spot. In hatchback, SW and coupé-convertible forms, the 206 was the only other car to achieve sales of over half a million units, though even that represented a 9% slump compared with 2003.
Peugeot's 307 was third on the list, followed by the Renault Megane (up a startling 17.6%) and the Ford Focus. Focus sales were generally down in 2004 as the old model came to the end of its production life, but the second-generation version proved to be popular in December. In that month it was the second top seller, still some way behind the Golf but fractionally ahead of the 206.
Of the next four cars - the Renault Clio, Vauxhall/Opel Astra, Volkswagen Polo and Vauxhall/Opel Corsa - only the Astra saw increased sales, this being a new model for 2004. The others fell back by between 10.7% (Corsa) and 19.4% (Polo). Rounding out the top ten were the Renault Scenic and Grand Scenic, considered by JATO to be one model and boasting a sales upturn of just under 20%.
As these figures suggest, varying fortunes for different models of the same make meant that manufacturer sales figures remained fairly even. At 1,509,148, Renault remained on top, but like Volkswagen, Vauxhall/Opel and Ford - second to fourth on the list - its total was within 2% of what was achieved in 2003. Peugeot held on to its previous position of fifth, but suffered a 4.4% drop, while partner company Citroen similarly lost 2.7% of sales but remained sixth.
Fiat sales fell by 1.53%, and the Italian company came within 50,000 units of losing seventh place to Toyota, which had a very strong year and moved ahead of Mercedes-Benz to take eighth. The big improver in the top ten was BMW, which gained an impressive 12.4%. This was partly due to a big rush of orders in December, when the 3-Series, 5-Series and 7-Series were all the top-selling cars in their segments, while the 1-Series and X3 very nearly managed the same feat.
Among the lower-volume sellers there was very strong growth for smart, Hyundai and Mazda, all of which improved on their 2003 figures by over 18%. But these performances pale alongside that of Kia, which improved by a massive 44.2% over the year, mostly thanks to the success of the Picanto.
The market segment which saw the greatest boom in sales was that for premium lower-medium cars, which expanded by just over 50%. The most successful car here was the Audi A3, followed by the Alfa Romeo 147 and the BMW 1-Series. Sports cars were up by 23.5%, led by the Mercedes-Benz CLK and SLK, while mini/midi-MPVs improved by 22.8% - the best individual figures here were scored by the Renault Scenic/Grand Scenic, the Vauxhall/Opel Zafira and the Citroen Picasso. Cars like this seem to be taking sales away from the lower-medium category, even though the latter grew somewhat in 2004 thanks to the introduction of the Astra, Focus and Golf.
The luxury, premium upper-medium and full-size MPV classes all declined by around 10%, a statistic which suggests that people are more willing nowadays to downsize to smaller models - or, perhaps more likely, that those models are now being built to a standard that was previously available only in much more expensive cars.
