Car Sales In Spain, France In Ruins

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: August 1st, 2012

And now, back to the usual blood and tears from Europe: July new cars sales dropped 7 percent in France and thudded 17 percent in Spain “as consumers cut back on costly goods in the face of economic uncertainty,” says Reuters.

Registrations in troubled Spain have been in straight decline for more than two years, industry body ANFAC said told Reuters. “That trend will not change in the short term even though the discounts on offer are about the best in history,” ANFAC chief economist Aranzazu Mur said.

Commonly cocky Volkswagen received a taste of blood and tears when Spanish sales of Seats plunged 35 percent

#BertelSchmitt #France #July2012 #Sales #Spain

Bertel Schmitt

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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11 comments

MeaCulpa on Aug 01, 2012

I'm feeling the Spaniards pain, but, every cloud has a silver lining. Might the lining this time be VW killing the useless SEAT brand? I cant imagine what good it does besides sales in Spain, in the rest of the world I have a hard time imagining the brand contributing to VAG's total sales.

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- Mike978 on Aug 01, 2012
  
  SEAT's are sold in China, as I found out last week from this site. Agreed SEAT is the weakest of VW's brands but they still might make a profit for VW group since they part share.
  
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- MeaCulpa on Aug 01, 2012
  
  @mike978 My, admittingly (Wiki says it's a Word) confused, reasoning is something like this. The only product that Seat realistically competes against are those of other VAG brands, primarily Volkswagen and Skoda, thereby actually decreasing the number of cars with the exact same parts. I can really see what other cars that a potential Seat customer would cross shop. Skoda on the other hand competes quite well against the Japanese and Koreans. My judgment might be affected by my dislike of Seats design and my nortern/western European perspective.
  
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- W.Minter on Aug 01, 2012
  
  Don't underestimate the new Seat Leon. It is the silver lining. A well designed poor man's Audi A3 targeted at Kia cee'd, Alfa Giuletta, Ford Focus, Mazda 3 buyers.
  
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- MeaCulpa on Aug 01, 2012
  
  @W.Minter My expectations are not high judging from experience: It might seem like a good car until the new Golf launches, and it might seem like a good deal until the new Octavia hits the showroom floor, oh and Seat's styling will look fresh about as long as it takes for the first cars to reach consumers. But VAG works in mysterious ways so anything can happen.
  
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Dank on Aug 01, 2012

"Commonly cocky VW" ? This writer doesn't have the ability to put bias aside - like many inexperienced writers. VW has earned, earned the right to be among the best auto companies in the world. Great management, products, and engineering proven by huge sales growth and 20 billion in profict last year and this year. Or maybe it's just dumb luck? Unlikely. The companies who haven't put in the work or made the right decisions are now complaining about VW. Jealousy isn't pretty is it?

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- MeaCulpa on Aug 01, 2012
  
  FYI "This writer" has worked for the Teutonic powerhouse , and not as some stormtroper on a distant moon but rather on the deathstar itself, longer than most LT31s lasted.
  
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- Toucan on Aug 01, 2012
  
  dank > “Commonly cocky VW” ? This writer doesn’t have the ability to put > bias aside – like many inexperienced writers. You are so new here...
  
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Stuntmonkey on Aug 01, 2012

> VW has earned, earned the right to be among the best auto companies in the world. I've had a clutch assembly, alternator, and radiator reservoir that would beg to differ...

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- Asdf on Aug 01, 2012
  
  Meh... that's just peanuts in the grand scheme of things. That's not to say VW's reliability is as good as some people believe it to be, it seems to me that Americans are more realistic about it, whereas Europeans think it's a lot better than it actually is (to wit: if you have a problem with a VW group car, it's just because you've got a lemon or some random bad luck, but if you have a problem with, say, a French or Italian car, it's because they're all unreliable crap and you should have known better than to buy one in the first place).
  
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Beemernator on Aug 01, 2012

Car sales are just another symptom of an economy in dire straits. Unemployment is somewhere north of five million. Thousands of new flats remain unsold. Newly built airports have never seen a plane arrive or depart. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172339/Airports-seen-plane-ghost-towns-luxury-flats-The-hubris-Spains-descent-anarchy.html

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