A handful of manufacturers - including Jaguar Land Rover - have seen huge sales spikes across major European markets despite August 2012's new car sales being the worst in 22 years.
Jaguar Land Rover has seen a 48 per cent increase in sales across Europe thanks to strong Land Rover registrations, and the positive reception of the company's new Range Rover Evoque. Jaguar Land Rover managed to sell 3,849 cars across the EU in August - 1,200 more vehicles than in 2011.
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Kia also managed to record an increase of 12 per cent, with an impressive 20,308 cars registered last month. Audi was one of the best performers for the VW Group, recording an increase of 6.6 per cent in August. The Volkswagen brand however was hit by a year-on-year drop of 3.1 per cent.
Overall the VW Group recorded a rise of 1.3 per cent. Though that might not sound like much, the company's 28 per cent market share of European territories means that figure is a sizeable improvement over its competitors.
Ford woe
The data has been compiled by industry analyst ACEA, which shows that the European new car sales last month were the worst in 22 years.
Ford posted the worst results, with sales down by an incredible 29 per cent when compared against the same period in 2011. Fiat and General Motors also performed poorly as Italian, Greek, French and German motorists kept well away from the new car market.
Only 688,168 new cars were registered last month across the EU, which represents a year-on-year slump of 8.9 per cent. Ford has undoubtedly been the worst-performing manufacturer though, and is on course to make a billion-dollar loss across its European territories.
Ford Motor chief executive Alan Mulally recently conceded at a press event in New York that the figures were "a real concern." He managed to look on the bright sifde though, adding: "We're very pleased with our position in Europe because we're the number two automaker throughout Europe."
Written by John Meadowcroft