Sales of new passenger edged up only slightly in the EU, rising 0.6 percent to 1,231,147 units sold in September. Nine months into the year, 10,121,423 new cars found a buyer, 1.1 percent less than in the same period a year ago. For all intents and purposes, Europe is flat.

The measly 0.6 percent growth in September goes on account of Germany, the only major market that posted growth (+8.1 percent). In other volume markets, the downturn ranged from 0.8 percent in the UK to 1.3 percent in Spain, 1.4 percent in France and 5.7 percent in Italy. This according to data collected ( a bit late this month) by the European manufacturers association ACEA.

Full data can be retrieved here as PDF, and for the number-crunchers here as Excel data. This sheet also has the manufacturer ranking. No much suspense here either.