Germany In February 2013: Going South
Bad omen for Europe: The German car market, considered one of the healthier in Europe, was down 10.5 percent in February, compared to the same month in the prior year. News from other European volume markets are worse.
Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt, which keeps track of registrations, reports a continuation of a strange and somewhat scary trend: Compact and mid-sized cars, usually the bread and butter of the German market see losses of more than 20 percent. Growth is in mini-cars (up! 20.6 percent) and in the Upper Class (+ 13 percent).
Among the German brands , Opel (-21.2 percent) and Ford (-19,4 percent) were loss-leaders (the KBA counts Opel and Ford as German, they have been there longer than Volkswagen.)
New car sales in Italy were down 17.1 percent in February, Reuters reports. Sales in Spain were down 9.8 percent, those in France dropped 12 percent.
German data (in German) can be downloaded here.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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How much of that middle ground lost is due to the Golf model change?
Jaguar is doing very well in Germany, are the locals just sick of MB/BMW/VAG?