Overall European new car registrations were up year-on-year for July 2013, with two thirds of national markets reporting growth compared to July 2012, but remained down year-to-date.

According to figures from Jato Dynamics, total new cars sales for the month rose to 1,023,086, growing 4.9% from 974,884 last year, while the year-to-date total fell 5.2% to 7,487,561 from 7,899,896.

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Out of the five largest markets, France reported 0.9% year-on-year growth, Germany grew by 2.1%, Spain by 16.5% and Great Britain by12.7%, while Italy shrank 1.8%.

Out of the same five, only Great Britain saw a year-to-date increase, with 10.3% reflecting 17 consecutive months of growth, while France shrank by 9.7%, Germany by 6.7%, and Spain and Italy by 1.3% and 9.3% respectively.

Ireland saw notable growth for July, with the country’s first ever mid-year plate change boosting new registrations by 163.2% over July 2012, but it still saw contraction over the year so far, down 8.7%.

Volkswagen sales down, Ford up

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Volkswagen sold 130,554 to top the manufacturers’ table, although July sales fell 2.4% from 133,745 and year-to-date sales were also down 6.9%. The VW Group has reported an 11.6% drop in first-half profits, although finance arm VWFS saw profits rise 5%.

This was in spite of the Golf and Polo being the two top selling models in Europe for July, increasing sales by 15% and 0.5% respectively.

The next three bestselling marques all saw July sales increase, with Ford growing by 10.4% to 78,126, Opel/Vauxhall by 7.4% to 66,990, and Renault by 3.5% to 64,358.

Ford’s growth was driven by having the third and fifth top selling models in the Fiesta and Focus, which saw an increase in new registrations of 1.9% and 12.8% respectively, while its credit provider Ford Motor Credit has predicted similar 2013 results to those in 2012.

Meanwhile Renault’s growth was boosted by the sale of 29.5% more Clio’s than in July last year, but the Group’s half-year revenues fell 0.9%, with captive partner RCI Banque contributing €372m, €20m less than the previous year.

The only manufacturer in the top ten to record year-to-date growth was eighth place Mercedes, with 3.7% more cars sold, in spite of not producing a single top ten model.