Bad European car sales are about to get worse.  French September car registrations dropped 18 percent year-on-year, while Spain’s plunged 37 percent, Reuters reports. (Read More…)

Europe’s new car market continues on its downward spiral with sales down 2.8 percent in June. Half year sales are down 6.8 percent across the EU, data released today by the European Automobiles Manufacturers’ Association ACEA show today. Some countries and automakers do much better, some much worse. (Read More…)

Yesterday, we brought you the bad news about European auto sales in April. You are a gearhead, you don’t care about market share and percentiles, you care about cars! Here is how cars fared in Europe in April. Are you safely buckled-up? (Read More…)

Stories of Greek defaults and Italian austerity programs make you think that Europe as a whole is just about to implode. Not true at all. The export-oriented German economy profits from the still relatively low Euro. The good mood in Germany is reflected in the number of new cars that were registered in March. Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt reports a 3.4 percent rise in March, compared to the same month of 2011. (Read More…)

New car sales in Japan rose 72 percent in March to 751,888 vehicles. Sales of registered vehicles climbed 78.2 percent to 497,959, says the Japan Automobile Dealers Association JADA. Sales of separately reported mini vehicles rose 60.5 percent to 253,929, as indicated by data of the Japan Mini Vehicles Association. (Read More…)

It looks like the German new car market decided: “Last year was nice. Let’s do it again.” For a few months, the German market had retraced the prior year. In February, the prior year number has been hit with 0.0 percent precision. (Read More…)

The year starts on a high note, at least when you are Chrysler. Chrysler reports a jaw-dropping 44-percent gain in domestic auto sales. Also up: Volkswagen, up 48 percent to 27,209 vehicles. Nissan sales in the U.S. are up 10.4 percent to 79,313. (Read More…)

You’ll probably hear that the Chinese car market grew a tiny bit in November. Don’t believe it. Not true. According to data released today by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) the market for all automobiles dropped 2.42 percent compared to November last year. Not that the sky would be falling: (Read More…)

The German new car market appears to be unimpressed by the European tribulations. Germans bought 269.144 new cars in November, up 2.6 percent compared to November 2010. This according to registration data released by the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt.

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Car sales in India got it under the chin in October. In October 2011, sales of passenger cars were down 23.77 percent, utility vehicles were up a hair at 0.41 percent, sales of vans decelerated by 17.57 percent. (Read More…)

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released its October sales, and they confirmed the rumors that they were nothing to write home about. Total automobile sales are down 1.07 percent compared to October 2010. Production rose less than 2 percent. Passenger vehicles still outpace the overall market, up 1.42 percent. (Read More…)

New car sales in Europe’s largest market Germany are settling into levels slightly above last year, as registration data by Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt show. With 258.253 cars sold in October, sales in the month were 0.6 percent above the same month in the prior year. 10 months into the year, Germans registered 2.66 million new cars, up  9.8 percent compared to the same period in 2010. (Read More…)

From the Detroit News all the way to the Miami Herald, you will receive the good news that “China’s July auto sales are up 6.7 percent.” They are not. According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), automobile production in China rose 1.26 percent in July to 1,306,100. Sales rose 2.18 percent to 1,275,300. In case you don’t read Chinese, China Daily provides a translation. The numerical crime was perpetrated again by the Associated Press. The AP is a repeat offender. (Read More…)

New car sales were up 9.9 percent in July in Germany, says the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt. As the picture above shows, sales are slightly above 2010 (red line) and below the Abwrackprämien-addled 2009. Normalcy ensues in Deutschland, which is mostly on vacation anyway. The summer months are not for car buying, they are for car driving. (Read More…)

Our patent-pending China sales oracle is in top form. As predicted, the Chinese market awoke from the doldrums in June and rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.11 million units. This according to a data released today by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). (Read More…)