European Auto Sales Up 6.1% in October, 6.5% on Year

PARIS – The European automotive recovery continued in October with a 6.5% increase in car sales to 1,072,837, in line with the year-to-date improvement of 6.1%.

The economy in Europe remains moribund and several countries are in recession, but the 5-year sales decline starting in 2008 apparently created a replacement market that finally had to grow.

Sales have improved month over month for 14 months straight, according to ACEA, the European automakers association. Still, in October 2007 Europeans registered 1.2 million cars.

Every group but General Motors and Honda has sold more cars this year than last year at the same time, and in October only GM, Honda and Suzuki were down.

Renault’s revival leads the European groups, up 15.3% for the year. The European brands (minus Ford and GM) are up 7.0% for the year, and 6.5% in July. Ford and GM, which are both European and North American, are up just 1.6% for the year, and were off by 0.4% in October as Ford’s gain was not enough to overcome GM’s losses.

The Japanese automakers have had the biggest growth, up 9.5% on the year and 11.8% in October. Mitsubishi sold 9,702 cars last month, up 76.3%. Despite improving, the Japanese as a group have just 12.2% of the European Union market year-to-date, while the Koreans have 6.1%, Ford-GM 14.9% and the Europeans 66.8%.

France was the only large market to decline (-3.8%) in October. Germany, the largest market, was up 3.7%, Spain up 26.1%, the U.K. up 14.2% and Italy up 9.2%. The economy in Spain is reviving rapidly, after declining faster when the recession hit, and for the year is up 18.1%. The U.K. is ahead 9.5% for the year, thanks in part to the high percentage of purchases for business fleets, which are renewed more quickly than the retail market.

Year-to-date, only three of the 27 region’s countries reported declining sales: Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands.