Not exactly the catchiest headline to a story, but "Car Sales Plummet Into Oblivion" is probably going a little over the top.
The
European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (www.acea.be), which includes amongst its members BMW, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen, have released some stats showing that new passenger car registrations across the EU have declined for twelve consecutive months.
1,099,264 new cars were registered in the EU in September 2012, down 10.8% compared to September 2011.
The UK was the only major market to buck this trend, with 332,476 cars registered in September 2011 increasing to 359,612 cars registered in September 2012 (+8.2%).
In Ireland, new car registrations in September 2012 (2,487) were down 10.1% compared to September 2011 (2,767).
Should say that all these stats exclude Malta. We're not sure why, because we love Malta and it looks very nice and sunny there.
