German Car sales down 30%

[LOVELYDOVEY05]

I read this in the I newspaper. It gave me quite shock. Europe really is going down the pan. Any comments?

Great line of thinking there. German car sales down = whole of Europe going down pan

Link?

UK car sales fell in 2017 = Europe is going down the pan. Do you agree? What's the difference OP?

@LOVELYDOVEY05
It looks like this is down to a year-on-year comparison for Sep '17 vs. Sep '18. Worth noting that year to date figures are reasonably healthy with a 2.4% rise in sales for year to date in '18 as compared to '17. See here for details.

The year-on-year September fall looks like its due to WLTP (Worldwide Light vehicle Testing Protocol) emission rules coming into effect in September requiring manufacturers to recertify all models under the new testing regime. Further information available here. Diesels appear to have been most affected by the introduction of the new regime.

Worth noting that UK sales reduced year-on-year by 20.5% in Sep '18 with year to date reduction in the '18 market of -7.5% which compares unfavourably with Germany's growth of 2.4% and its not really justifiable to extrapolate German performance to all of Europe.

Yes. Thank God op has given us cast iron proof that Europe is going down the pan.

It was a good effort though, 4 out of 10 (approx 80%)

More proof of the EU's decline:
Venezuela is using Euros rather than Dollars for international transactions.
www.rt.com/news/441448-venezuela-drops-dollar-currency/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=push_notifications

Looking beyond that misunderstood and misinterpreted sector specific (car) statistic, let's have a look GDP as a measure of financial health.

It's weird- almost as if the U.K. made some unwise decisions in 2016. ...

Global vehicle sales have been declining (note that Ford is going to lay off 24,000 employees internationally). There are several factors driving this, one is a rise in interest rates after being low for a longtime. The interest rate rise makes auto financing loans more expensive and harder to qualify for, there is also an interesting trend away from buying brand new cars (the decline in German auto sales you are referencing OP is for new car sales only). More consumer are buying cars that are up to three years old now rather than brand new cars.

Lastly, one development that has had a surprisingly large impact globally is the increase in consumer demand for ride hailing services (Uber, Lyft, Didi Chuxing - in China etc...). This trend will only strengthen.

Analysts have been well aware of declining auto sales internationally for a couple of years now so this is no surprise and definitely no surprise to the German auto industry.

Perhaps this article explaining the slump in consumer auto demand in the UK since the referendum while demand has increased in the EU might be informative for you OP:

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-17/brexit-u-k-suffers-car-sales-drop-as-europe-flourishes

I expect there are a whole raft of reasons. Global financial 'crash' in 2008 and combined with the fact that modern cars are very reliable (except for yours of course!), so a 10 year or older car is still viable.

I think this is really interesting OP. People are very keen to discuss car sales as an indicator of economic health. There are quite a few ‘I blame Brexit’ articles about sales dropping in the UK.

The truth is that dropping car sales is less to do with affordability and more to do with spending patterns, financial priorities and Uber. Why own a car that is only in use 5% of the time? Etc

Why own a car that is only in use 5% of the time? Etc

We don't all live in cities. Some of us live in rural and semi rural areas. What's Uber? However, more importantly, what is a bus? Services have been slashed, which makes owning a car a necessity for many.

But put things another way, the Brexiters promised a land of milk and honey, so we should now be seeing firms rushing to invest and people having enough money sloshing around that they can buy a new car. May has told us that austerity is over, so we should see more bus services being put on, not see them continue to be slashed.

So much rubbish on this thread, when the facts can be ascertained in 30 secs on google:

"In September 2018, registrations of new passenger cars in the European Union fell by 23.5%. However, this should not come as a surprise, as the introduction of the new WLTP test at the beginning of last month caused an exceptional surge in registrations in August (+31.2%).

Over the first nine months of 2018, EU demand for passenger cars remained positive (+2.5%), in line with growth expectations for this year. Looking at the five biggest markets, demand went up in Spain (+11.7%), France (+6.5%) and Germany (+2.4%), while car sales contracted in Italy (-2.8%) and in the United Kingdom (-7.5%)."

Source: www.acea.be/press-releases/article/passenger-car-registrations-2.5-nine-months-into-2018-23.5-in-september

The UK new car sales statistics show that we have experienced a worse decline in the last year than any other EU country.

Hardly surprising as the brexit vote cause the £ to plummet in comparison with the Euro and political uncertainty eroding confidence in the future of the UK economy.

Thanks for that, Leave voters.

Which German cars ? VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat or Bentley ? Or are we talking about the Indian owned Jaguar Landrover or perhaps the French owned Nissan ?