European Auto Sales See Highest Gain This Year in September

After sales dropping 5% in August, The European Automotive Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) reports that European auto sales improved by 5.4% in September compared to September 2012. It is the third month this year that has had a sales increase over the same month in the previous year, and it is the largest gain this year. The sales were not strong enough to offset the general decline in the European car market, which is down 3.9% from January through September of this year. 

EU customers bought 1,159,066 cars in September, which is 5.4% from the previous September. However, it was still the second lowest September sales recorded by the ACEA since it started recording sales data in 1990. September 2012 had the lowest sales ever recorded for the month since it started collecting the data. Sales in September 2013 were also helped by there being one more business day of car sales this year compared to last year.

For September, sales in France were up 3.4%, up 12.1% in the UK and up 28.5% in Spain. Sales decreased by 2.9% in Italy and decreased by 1.2% in Germany. 

From January to September, there have been 9,000,629 cars sold in the EU. Sales are still at their lowest levels since 1990. For the nine months this year, the UK market is up 10.8%. Other major markets are down including Spain down 1.6%, Germany down 6%, Italy down 8.3% and France down 3.9%.