Find Reviews by Make:
1. VW GOLF 571,838 +23.9%
2. FORD FIESTA 472,091 +44.0%
3. PEUGEOT 207 367,160 -9.7%
4. OPEL/VAUXHALL CORSA 351,807 -2.5%
5. FIAT PUNTO 323,536 +15.9%
6. RENAULT CLIO 312,925 -6.8%
7. FORD FOCUS 309,134 -15.1%
8. FIAT PANDA 298,914 +33.8%
9. VW POLO 282,780 +2.4%
10. OPEL/VAUXHALL ASTRA 275,638 -14.1%
[Courtesy: JATO/Automotive News]
28 Comments on “Europe’s Top Ten Best-Selling Cars Of 2009...”
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I’ve heard the Euro version of the Ford Focus is alot better.
I haven’t driven the US Ford Focus, but don’t believe the hype about the Euro Ford Focus. I’ve driven many and I hated them. Cheap interior, handled like a tank and poor acceleration. I really don’t understand the love poured on Euro Fords.
YMMV Cammy but the 2nd generation Euro-Focuses I’ve driven have all pulled well, handled sharply, been superbly finished inside and been really engaging little motors. They’re just work-a-day hatchbacks, but they’re good ones.
I think it’s great news for our American Cousins that they’re no longer going to be getting a watered down version of this little gem.
Easy, the grass is always greener in the neighbour’s garden.
Also, I guess they (gringos) think anything done in USA is crap and everything done in EU is good and fancy.
I think none of them have driven a 1.4 lts Focus or 1.0 Fiesta before. You know, to feel the overwhelming acceleration of such power/weight combination.
I haven’t driven the US Focus, but I have driven a 1.6 Focus hatch (OK car, engine too small, gearing too short) and a 2.0 Focus CC convertible (utterly fantastic, comfortable for 1000km trips, stable at speed, quiet)
The North American Focus is based on the old C170 platform. Outside NA, the Focus is based on the newer C1 platform. In both Europe and North America in late 2010, both will be replaced by a newer version built on a newer, common C-class platform.
America, take note: the Volkswagen Golf and the (Euro-spec) Ford Focus are the largest cars on the list. And of course each and every one of these cars is more fuel-efficient than ANY of the top ten cars sold in the US.
(Even though the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic are of similar size, their US-spec powertrains harm their average fuel consumption. The American base powertrain for the Corolla is a 1.8 litre with a prehistoric four-speed automatic box. Europeans like to drive smaller-engined cars – the Auris (the Euro-spec Corolla) comes with 1.3 and 1.6 litre petrol engines, and the only automatic box available is a six-speed automated manual. Europeans like to row their gears, but you couldn’t sell a four-speed auto box in Europe even to the ones that don’t.)
What am I saying? Lose the automotive whales, America – one test drive in a European Focus will tell you that you don’t need two tons of metal and a three-litre V6 to drive around comfortably.
US Spec Mazda3 and the smaller VWs are comfortable enough . . . but this argument doesn’t hold water:
The Saturn Astra flopped here . . . and it was a nice enough car. It was even an incomplete rebadge, as the glove box had Opel markings.
It’s a totally different car market. People who need room for (you know) passengers are competing with larger, heavier vehicles. This is why I own a Mazda6 and not a Mazda3.
A silverado or F150 will still make short work of my car in an accident.
If you want fuel economy at the sake of safety, motorcycles are a fine alternative.
Good points by Cammy and discoholic. Gas is expensive in Europe. They tend to by cars more for their mileage than amenities. Compared to the U.S., cars are more spartan and smaller…yet cost about the same. Some of this is because of fuel prices, taxes and other incentives, but that doesn’t explain all of it. The European car buying phenomenon is similar to the Prius in the U.S. They never really recoup the savings in fuel. There is also a fairly strong “Europeanism” in Europe. Many would rather be driving a European car than a Japanese or American one.
I suspect you will start seeing a gradual change in the U.S. as well, as we continue into this recession and lose our buying power. Without the buying power vehicle manufacturers will be less willing to discount cars to fight for U.S. market share, and cars will get more expensive. With less money, and more expensive cars, people will have to downgrade to smaller, less well appointed cars. It won’t happen right away…not while there is still a huge oversupply of cars and car manufacturers fighting for position…but, as they herd gets culled we will see it.
Disaster: we Europeans certainly go for smaller cars than you do in the States yes, but “spartan”? Hardly. Are you basing your impressions on holiday rental cars by any chance? My general impression is that the standard of interiors on european cars is generally higher than that of their North American counterparts, with hard plastics being unacceptably low-rent and many simple luxuries coming as standard.
As for recouping the savings in fuel, don’t kid yourself! When a tank of petrol costs around the equivalent of $100 it makes a big difference if you’re filling up once or twice a week ;)
Seriously mileage is a factor certainly, but I think the main reason we don’t go for the kind of vehicular behemoths common on your roads is simply that they don’t fit in our towns and cities. I live in Edinburgh where even relatively modest sized SUVs like the Rav4 are completely impractical, they’re too wide for many streets and parking or turning becomes a nightmare.
Thinking of Paul Niedermeyers recent editorial on the Golf, I just contemplated the fact that this particular size of cars are still called the “Golf-class” in most of Europe. Talk about being eponymous. And still leader of the pack.
I’d say this list shows three different sizes of cars.
A-Segment, or “city cars”: Fiat Panda
B-Segment, or “Superminis”: Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Peugeot 207, Volkswagen Polo, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa, Fiat Punto
C-Segment, or “Golf-class”: Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Opel/Vauxhall Astra
As always, the cars have been growing bigger and bloatier throughout the years. What is now designated the Golf-class, was in the beginning cars smaller than todays B-segment. And that’s why there’s so many sellers in todays B-segment in Europe, because there’s where the really big market is and has always been.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_classification
The S-Class is an F-Segment?
Whoa, talk about confusing! Must be a metric thing :D
Yeah, well. Cars have to be classified in some ways. Cars that fall between the seats, so to speak, doesn’t fair well generally, being a classic neither/nor case.
They use the letter designation to be more multi-lingual appropriate. I don’t know what “subcompact” is in Polish, but I probably couldn’t pronounce it anyway. Pretty much everybody knows what a C-size car is there though.
Every time Ford has imported European Cars to sell in North America, they all have turned into Lemons in short order! I am not sure what they do to them here in NA but they where never a success. ir remember the Ford Cortina! and others.
Well, now we know why Europe’s birth-rate is so low. It’s the only way they can get their family into one vehicle.
It would be interesting to know how many Golfs were sold in Germany vs. the rest of Europe. In other words, is the no.1 showing by Golf mainly due to German sales? I’m glad Fiesta is # 2…such a gorgeous car.
I think there’s a fair share of regionalistic favourism showing in this list. I’d bet that the Fiats sells best in Italy, and that the Peugeot 207 tops the lists in France. But if the Germans ruled this board, there would be a Mercedes C-Class and BMW 3-series on the list, as those sells almost in Golf numbers in Germany. So I’d think it’s fair to say that the Golf is a big seller all over Europe.
@Michael Blue
It would be interesting to know how many Golfs were sold in Germany vs. the rest of Europe.
366,231. (vs. 231,293 in 2008, which is a 58% increase. People buy conservative in a crisis, and in Germany the most conservative choice is a Golf)
I’d be very interested to see the defects per 100 car numbers for each model while also including a civic and corolla just for comparison sake.
Good point . . . but it would have to be corrected for by expectations . . . are they higher or lower over there?
@jmo
I’d be very interested to see the defects per 100 car numbers for each model while also including a civic and corolla just for comparison sake.
Easy:
http://www1.adac.de/Auto_Motorrad/pannenstatistik_maengelforum/pannenstatistik_2008/tab.asp?ComponentID=250016&SourcePageID=250114
Corolla/Auris mediocre, Civic actually among the less reliable cars. (Focus and Astra too.)
Can someone tell me how to read this chart? i.e. why is the
VW POLO 282,780 above the FORD FOCUS 309,134
I assumed the number after the vehicle was volume sold…. is it something else?
DanM: Good catch. AN had NSFW’d up and Ed had worked too long. New AN’s table reads “Editor’s note: Table has been corrected to fix the order”
New data above reflect the corrected data in AN
Mirko,
AMAZING – Now that is the TTAC story of the week,
2003 Golf 23.9
2003 Corolla 21.7
I think if we look at the US numbers the quality gap between a Corolla and a Golf is far larger than 10%. How can we explain these numbers?
No, no. It’s the turning circle. You are off and away, faster.
Wow. To all Fiat haters and doubters out there Fiat still manages to put 2 of their cars in the top ten. In Europe. Supposedly the continent that knows all the best and doesn’t suffer fools (well, according to some US car hating Americans – tongue in cheek!)
And no, not all of those Fiat cars were sold to Italians. The Italians buy less cars than the Germans, British and French so those sales are more evenly spread all across Europe. These two cars, plus the Bravo and the 500 are undeniably great sucesses for Fiat. And are the reason they are stll afloat (not to mention other markets, very specially Brazil).
From what Ive heard and read the most nationalistic buyers are the French. Followed by Germany. Italy is much more Europeanized than those countries. And poor Britain doesn’t have a national car industry left (though some British think of Ford and Vauxhall as such, not to mention Jaguar and such “smaller players”- w/ all due respect).