VW Golf Remains Europe's Best Selling Car in Q1 2009, Ford Fiesta Closing in Fast

Despite the fact that for the first time in 2009, Ford's warmly received new Fiesta hatchback managed to top the Golf VI in sales in March, overall, VW's bread-and-butter model was crowned once again king of Europe in the first quarter of the year with a total of 119,651 units (-3.9% compared to Q1 2008) versus the Fiesta's 113,576 units (+15.7% compared to Q1 2008). The Fiesta recorded a 15.5% increase in volumes in March with 52,805 vehicles sold while the Golf remained stable with a 0.1% decrease at 46,415 units.

The depressed European market, which according to Jato Dynamics' data, fell 16.9% (or 691,350 units) in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, to a total of 3,401,473 units, is definitely more favorable towards smaller cars.

In March, behind the Fiesta, the top ten places were rounded off by the VW Golf, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 207, VW Polo, Fiat Punto, Ford Focus, Fiat Panda, Renault Clio and Opel/Vauxhall Astra.

Overall in the first quarter of 2009, the European top sellers are the VW Golf followed by the Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 207, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Focus, VW Polo, Fiat Grande Punto, Fiat Panda, Renault Clio and Opel/Vauxhall Astra.

And in case you didn't notice it, there's not a single Japanese or Korean model in the European bestselling car list...

source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com

Data: Jato Dynamics