European Car Registrations Fall for Fifth Straight Month in February

PARIS – Europeans registered 888,878 passenger cars in February, down 9.7% from year-ago despite the extra day for leap year.

But what’s worse, last month’s result fell 6% below like-2008 at the heart of the region’s financial crisis when deliveries tumbled 17.9%.

Europe’s car registrations have lost ground for five straight months, each with progressively worse results: October -1.8%, November -3.5%, December -6.5%, January -7.1% and February -9.7%.

Until now, Europe’s biggest market, Germany, has been scoring gains to temper the decline, but last month it registered 224,318 cars, 108 less than year-ago. France and Italy were down 20.2% and 18.9%, respectively. Spain, which has suffered badly, lost only 2.1% against prior-year and the U.K. slipped 2.5%.

The only gains to be found were in Eastern Europe, where deliveries in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Estonia rose a combined 10.9% to 53,629 units. However, that still is less than February car sales in the Spanish market.

Eurozone countries suffered an overall 11.8% loss in car registrations last month. Among them, Greece and Portugal, with the greatest sovereign debt, saw car sales plunge by nearly half compared with year-ago.

February’s pain was not shared equally by the auto makers. Mitsubishi, Honda, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Suzuki and Peugeot all lost more than 20% in car sales.

However, premium-car auto makers were not affected as much. Small-volume brands Land Rover, Jeep and Lexus all gained more than 50% in the month, while Lancia/Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar each sold more cars than in like-2011.

Together, premium and entry-premium brands gained 2.0% in February and now hold an 18.4% share of the European market.

Among the mass-market brands, Hyundai, Kia and Chevrolet gained ground. The rest, including perennial leader Volkswagen, lost sales year-on-year. But the 1.7% loss at VW, in a market down 9.7%, raised the brand’s share to 12.9% in Europe.

Including SEAT, Skoda and Audi, the VW group now holds a 23.7% market share in the European Union.