Most European countries recorded a rise in sales in March, although in Spain they were down 0.7%, and in Germany, Europe’s biggest car market, sales remained flat. Denmark and Greece were also down.
As Easter fell in March, the number of sales days were reduced compared with last year. Among the major markets, Italy enjoyed the strongest growth, with sales up 17.4%, followed by France, which posted a 7.5% increase and the UK, at 5.3%.
Prof Christian Stadler of Warwick Business School said that VW had suffered a downturn, though not a massive one, showing that as past scandals have shown, “people are often quick to move on and forget”.
He said: “That the VW brand has been hit more than others is no surprise, but, considering the furore of ‘dieselgate’ we have definitely not witnessed the demise of the Volkswagen Group that some expected.”
He added that Volkswagen’s product mix was a bigger concern; for example, it does not have any new SUV models, and it has been outpaced by its Japanese rival Toyota.
“Over in China it does not really have a cheap mid-range SUV that the market is after.
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