German new car sales pierced the previous year line for the first time this year. In December, Germans bought 6.9 percent more cars than in December 2010. However, this is more due to a moderate December 2009 than to an overly strong December 2010. For the year, German new car sales are 23.4 percent below 2009.
2009 was a crazy year in Germany. Driven by a huge cash for clunkers program, sales raced to levels not seen in recent history. As the chart above shows, after getting through some serious hangover in the first half of the year, the 2010 new car market in Germany is slowly coming back to 2008 levels. 2010 is only 5.7 percent below 2008, data by the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt show. This link comes with the usual complement of extra data, down to individual brands.
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I’d settle for any headline. :)
You don’t say!