Car Production In Germany By Brand : 2000-09

This was the first time since WW II that numerically there was a drop through a decade. Production did hit a record in 2007 but the economic downturn hit and volumes suffered. Premium production was 41% in 1999 but had quickly reached 50% by 2006. Mainstream models are affected more by economic depressions but also the high cost of making cars in Germany was sending some production elsewhere.

Belgium Car Sales By Brand : 1990-94

The Renault Clio arrived in 1990 


As best as I can I put together this list. Any input welcome. Car sales were going well until the recession which hurt the car market in 1993 and 94. Opel started the period ahead but lost out to VW and then Renault. Lada had a rough time but further down Rover seemed unconcerned and was on a roll.

European brands did well as expected with the U.S. European

Italy Car Sales Fiat vs The Rest : 1955-59

The Fiat 1100 came out in 1953 and an attractive car for its day.


I managed to find sales figures for Fiat from way back in the mists of time. Well, the late 50's at least. The Italian market was protected from imports and the Fiat brand reigned supreme. In 1955 it held a staggering 92% of the total sales! I suppose the locals were just happy to afford a car at all after the ravages of war in

Car Production In Germany By Brand : 1990-99

The Focus came out late this decade made at Saarlouis, Saarland


The early 1990's were marked by a recession, noted in the production chart below. Mainstream car production numbers didn't change during this period, while toward the end of the decade premium cars were hitting 40% of the total cars made in Germany. Ford went from 3rd largest German car producer to 6th over this time.

All

Sharing Pick-Up Trucks

Car makers need to be working more together but there needs to be a fair amount of differentiation in appearance if not mechanically. When a vehicle simply has a new grille, then maybe not enough was done. Of course, the more that is done to distance the two, the greater the cost.

Mitsubishi is preparing a pick-up truck for Fiat for late 2016 release. Fiat will be sold mainly in Europe and Latin

Car Production In Germany By Brand : 1980-89

The Audi 90. Clean lines but it looks so 80's


An extra million cars were added to the production numbers for the nine years from 1980 to 1989. Premium brands made up 20% in 1971 but climbed during that decade. For the 80's it was consistently around the third mark. BMW and Audi were closing in on Mercedes but all three were buoyant. Not so for Porsche, whose production slumped in 1988. The

Fiat Spider Mk II

The Fiat looks more conservative than the Mazda


Fiat has a poor range of cars in my opinion. It doesn't have a lot of money to play with either as much of that is going to revive Alfa Romeo. It needs more models and it has landed one courtesy of Mazda, the Fiat Spyder. It was going to be an Alfa model but the decision was made for it to be a Fiat, including a sportier Abarth version later as

Car Production In Germany By Brand : 1970-79

1.7 million Opel Kadets were made from 1973-79. A nice, simple car 


Production volume continued its steady incline in Germany, despite the the oil crisis that hit mid-decade. VW continued as the mainstay of the volume, although it went from 46% of the total in 1969 to 33% by 1979. Both GM Opel and Ford had solid gains too. However, while Mercedes and BMW were doing nicely, Audi was stuck in

Citroën Car/LCV Production By Model : 2014

The C-Elysee going well for Citroën


Citroën grew numerically 2% for 2014. The two big improvers were the C4 and C-Elysee both adding 50-60,000 more units. I included the DS range with other Citroën models as to me they are still very similar and yet to establish themselves as a stand alone premium range. That will take years. I noticed the van range has held up better for the chevron brand

Peugeot Car/LCV Production By Model : 2014

Peugeot managed a 3% increase in production for the year. Most models were produced in lower numbers as the salmon colour below would indicate. The green models went up, in particular the 308 and 2008 which added 50,000 and 129,000 units respectively. The yellow colouring at the bottom is for models no longer made.

The numbers below include both passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. '

Car Production In Germany By Brand : 1965-69

An advanced car for its day that was a flop on the sales front


Production continued it's upward trend in Germany through the late 1960's. VW was accounting for half of the volume and GM Opel not far off a quarter. Ford managed to produce less units surprisingly. Mercedes was increasing consistently and NSU released the technically advanced Ro 80 model in 1967. Sales were poor, as was its

Is VW's Desire To Compensate Cynical?

VW is refusing to compensate European customers the way it is for the US and Canada. They say the compensation is for the North American region only. Someone at VW needs to do their homework. A newsreader in New Zealand who's husband bought a Škoda said they got a letter saying they would be getting compensation, larger than the US amount but consistent with exchange rate differences. Mind you

Car Production In Germany By Brand : 1960-64

The 1960's was a time of increased prosperity in the Western World, especially Europe as it shook off the effects of war. So how was German car production back then? Let's see.

Borgward Group: Making cars under the Goliath, Borgward, Hansa and Lloyd brands, it got into financial trouble and folded. Many of the engineers went to BMW.

Porsche: A small sports car maker at this time, volume was

Euro Sales By Brand : Jan-Oct 2015

The chart below is ranked according to sales for October. The green is for gain in market share for either October or Year To Date. Sales for October slowed to +2.7%, compared for the YTD figure of +8.2%. The UK was down slightly after many months of gains.

VW had a small drop in sales but the fall out from the scandal would have had marginal effect. The largest brand to be up both for the month

Mature Market Vehicle Production : Germany

The VW 1500 Variant. I had a dinky car of the saloon model


Germany has held up well for a mature market. It has local brands so that helps keeping production from moving elsewhere. Of late being tied to the Euro is a huge benefit too. While many bemoan bailing out Greece, I feel that Germany gets more back when it comes to exporting cars. If Germany still had the Mark it would be much higher

JLR's Refocus From 2015

It's been a case of 'pedal to the metal' for Jaguar


JLR has been going at frenetic pace by motor industry standards. It is a capital hungry business and to grow quickly costs a lot. In Jaguar's case it only had three models, two of which were small volume. The XF was the only one that you could call a large selling model and in its segment it is not a big fish. So how was Jaguar going to

Are Alfa Romeo Volume Predictions Realistic?

The CEO of FCA Sergio Marchionne is keener than most to postulate on future car sales for brands within his car organisation. He predicted that Maserati would reach 50,000 sales by 2015, but it looks like that will be more like 35,000 and 2016 will be the year for the 50k mark to be reached. The Ghibli model's sales haven't held up in 2015 as hoped. New models can do that.

So seeing as Alfa

Range Rover Evoque Convertible

Nissan did the Murano CrossCabriolet and it bombed. The soft top market isn't what it was. Perhaps worry of too much sun on the skin is part of the reason. Maybe they are just not what people want anymore. So why is Land Rover doing one? Because it is drop dead gorgeous. I love style, I like to think I have an eye for it. Mind you I think anyone would appreciate how it looks.

What I like is

Jaguar NZ "Actual Reality" Prank!

This is amazing. I just want to know why I didn't manage to get in on the action....

VW Group Cheating : What We Learn So Far

Of course the whole debacle has been unfolding and becoming clearer with each startling revelation. So this isn't a definitive conclusion. Too much water is still to pass under the bridge. However, now that a full month of sales have been assessed, what can we learn so far?

1) The VW brand has been hit the worst. Škoda, Audi and now Porsche are involved but the VW Group name is more obviously

Mature Market Vehicle Production : UK

Some great cars from Austin back in the 1960's


The UK car manufacturing industry has had had its ups and downs and ups. In the 1950's it emerged as a successful industry, went into decline in the 1970s', had a brief gain from the late 1980's, slipped a little and making a small comeback at this point. Below is what I mean.









Year
Vehicle
Car
CV
% CV



1950

Nice Guys Get Washed Away

The truth is that life today looks refined but behind the facade it is a jungle. As the saying goes "Civilisation is a thin veneer". Outwardly everything looks honourable but behind the scenes deals are done and then made to look innocent.

The downside to all this is in most cases cheating pays. Playing by the rules gives you a good conscience but if your opponent isn't, then you are at a

Car/LCV Sales Russia By Brand : 2010-14

Sales rebounded after 2009 quite well but now the Ukrainian fiasco has had a depressing effect on sales for 2015. In this final in the short series, Lada remained on top but with an ever decreasing share. That reduced from 27 to 17% in this period. I read somewhere that in 2014 that Lada on accounted for just 4% of car sales in Moscow. It must be really popular in rural areas. The economic

Shifting Buying Patterns In New Zealand 2014-15

Comparing the first nine months of 2014 to 2015 (Jan-Sep) shows a trend that is probably fairly common around the world. Below there are four categories, cars, SUVs, pick-up trucks and MPVs and small buses - the latter I assume is mainly vans with seats.



NZ's number one selling car, the Corolla


Cars: There is no surprise that the car is the largest segment but losing share. The 4-door is

Now Porsche Engine Implicated!

A new accusation from the US Environmental Protection Agency that the 3 litre diesel engine fitted to the 2014 Volkswagen Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne, and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5 has also been rigged. VW has denied the latest allegation about the engine, developed by Audi.

VW is sure this is incorrect but if proven to be true, shows how difficult it is to

How Are VW Sales In October 2015?

I will keep this article up to date as I can when sales come in. It will compare 2015 with 2014.

So far these are the markets I have. The first percentage figure is comparing VW sales for 2015 and 2014. The figure in brackets is total market comparison. So for Austria as an example VW sales are up 3% for October 2015 against October 2014. The total market was down 7% in October. Therefore

Car/LCV Sales Russia By Brand : 2005-09

What a five year period here! Sales skyrocketed then imploded. The Russian car market was spoken of as becoming Europe's largest, passing Germany. However things didn't go that way and the economic downturn hit Russia badly.

The market itself saw Lada go from over half of all sales to less than a quarter by 2009. New Chinese brands appeared with varying degrees of success. It really did have