The European new car market declined by 11.2% in September, its biggest drop in sales this year-to-date, and fell 9.4% in Q3 compared to the same period last year.

The UK (+4.3%) was the only ‘big-five’ market to experience 2012 growth at the end of Q3, with Germany (-1.8%), Spain (-13.1%), France (-13.8%) and Italy (-20.7%) all experiencing reduced year-to-date sales.

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Among the top ten brands, only BMW (+9%) and Audi (+0.2%) recorded sales increases in September compared to last year, but only Audi saw an overall increase for the quarter.

Volkswagen’s Golf remains Europe’s top model, despite a 17.2% decrease in sales in Q3 2012 compared to 2011.

‘Most-challenging month’

Gareth Hession, vice-president, research at JATO said: "The European new car market has shown little sign of improvement in the last quarter and September has been the most challenging month so far this year. Strong sales in Great Britain, driven by the new registration plate change, did little to lift overall European performance as the unfavourable economic conditions continue to take their toll in most countries."

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The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) backed up Jato’s findings with sales figures for 26 of the 27 EU member states (data for Malta is unavailable), reporting that in September, new passenger car registrations continued their downward trend, declining for the twelfth consecutive month.

New cars sales fell 10.8% (1,099,264 units) compared with September 2011, down 10.8%. Nine months into the year, the downturn reached 7.6%, with a total of 9,368,327 new cars registered.

ACEA confirms the UK as the only market to expand in September, compared to September 2011, while Germany (-10.9%), France (-17.9%), Italy (-25.7%) and Spain (-36.8%) all faced double-digit downturns.

Year-to-date results were diverse across markets, with the UK posting growth (+4.3%), while Germany saw its demand fall by 1.8%, with Spain (-11.0%), France (-13.8%) and Italy (-20.5%) all contracting more severely.