New car sales in Europe suffered their worst June since 1996 with demand falling to 1,134,042 vehicles.
That total was down 5.6% from the same month last year.
It brought sales for the first half of the year to 6,204,990 cars, a 6.6% fall, according to the European auto industry body ACEA .
The UK was the only major car market to expand, with sales up 13.4% in June year-on-year and 10% ahead for the six months.
In contrast, in the first half of this year Germany's market was down 8.1% (132,000 units), France down 11.2% (117,000 units), Italy down 10.3% (85,000 units) and Spain down 4.9% (20,000 units).
Among the smaller markets the Netherlands was down 36% or almost 120,000 units and Ireland was down 20% or 13,000 units, although Belgium grew by 1.7% or 4,700 units and Denmark's market rose 9% or 7,500 units.
The figures relate to the 27 countries in the European Union plus those in the European Free Trade Association.
Norbert Reithofer, the chief executive of BMW, said in a German newspaper interview this morning that he did not expect a pick-up in Western Europe's markets until the middle of next year.
As editor, Tim is responsible for the media content, planning and production of AM's multiple channels (AM print and digital magazines, website, social media and contributing to our events planning). He interviews and writes about as many franchised dealer groups and UK divisions of motor manufacturers as possible, to explore the issues facing UK motor retail and understand what solutions dealers and suppliers are using to overcome these.
Dan Jones - 17/07/2013 15:33
No sure about the French manufacturers - but ze Germans, seem not to build without dealer orders. I am no expert, but I know if you want a bog standard VW Golf, the UK dealers have no stock. You need to place an order for it to be built, before you even get a projected delivery date. Current waiting time is 3-4 months allegedly. Most of the VAG group which includes SEAT, Audi and Skoda run this way also. I do think there are a lot of ex lease cars that simply get crushed or put in a field to rot when their 3 year term is over. As a lot of vendor financing (BMW certainly) goes on I recon this is where the losses hide - in 3 year old cars which can not be sold without flooding the market and depressing demand and the illusion of residual value. A different way of keeping the factories open from vanilla channel stuffing. Somebody might have a lot of 3 year old mid market sales exec type motors parked in a field on their books at a very unrealistic value. No evidence for the above - just my hunch. Dan - http://www.insurance4motortrade.co.uk