The Top 318 Best Selling Cars in Europe (Hint: The Corolla is nowhere to be seen)

In the last couple of weeks we have traveled to Georgia (the country not the state), Myanmar, Bolivia and the entire world! The success of our exploration of the Top 100 best-selling models in the world last week made me think you might be interested in a similar type of article about Europe… However, if the whole of Europe is too much for you to handle today, that's fine because I have sales info for 160 countries for you to visit in my blog, all one by one. So don't be shy and click away! Back to your Grand Tour of Europe. First a bit on the methodology, as 'Europe' is a vague geographic notion these days. This data was sourced on Automotive News and includes sales from the 27 European Union countries minus Bulgaria and Malta, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. If you are not interested in Europe as a whole but in its individual countries, that's OK too – just click here and look for your country on the right hand side. Now that I've cleared that up, let's get to it. The VW Golf continues to be the best-selling car on the continent by far with 493,855 sales in 2011, it has now been on top of the European ranking every year since 2008… The Ford Fiesta takes the 2nd spot at 372,977 units… …just above the VW Polo at 371,454 sales. The Opel Corsa ranks #4… …followed by the Opel Astra, Ford Focus and Renault Clio. The VW Passat is the big winner in the Top 10 at #10, up 10 spots and 43% on 2010. Down 17% on last year, the Fiat Punto loses its spot in the Top 10 to #11, followed closely by the Nissan Qashqai at #12 with 216,970 sales. The Qashqai hasn't stopped progressing in the European ranking since its original launch in 2007 and has managed to rank within the monthly European Top 10 a couple of times already, including in September 2011. The Skoda Octavia is up 2 spots to #14 and climbed into the European Top 10 for the first time in January 2012. The Mercedes C-Class moved up 9 ranks to #16, it überholt its archenemy, the BMW 3 Series. Europe 2011 Top 20 best-selling models Pos Model 2011 YoY 2010 Pos '10 1 VW Golf 493,855 -2% 502,307 1 2 Ford Fiesta 372,977 -12% 425,595 2 3 VW Polo 371,454 2% 364,439 3 4 Opel Corsa 327,717 -2% 333,622 5 5 Opel Astra 327,458 7% 306,152 7 6 Ford Focus 308,747 6% 292,348 8 7 Renault Clio 304,106 -13% 348,921 4 8 Renault Megane 251,487 -8% 272,612 9 9 Peugeot 207 245,649 -21% 310,827 6 10 VW Passat 245,110 43% 170,876 20 11 Fiat Punto 220,343 -17% 266,553 10 12 Nissan Qashqai 216,970 0% 215,982 13 13 Fiat Panda 189,527 -20% 236,323 11 14 Skoda Octavia 186,440 0% 186,994 16 15 Citroen C3 181,868 -21% 230,140 12 16 Mercedes C Class 178,345 17% 151,848 25 17 BMW 3 Series 166,860 -11% 187,623 14 18 Skoda Fabia 165,259 2% 162,207 23 19 Seat Ibiza 162,631 3% 157,610 24 20 Audi A4 162,085 -6% 173,069 19 You can see the entire Top 318 best-selling models in Europe in 2011 here  Outside the Top 20, great performers include the BMW 5 Series, up 30% and 12 ranks to #24, the Dacia Duster landing directly at #26 with 141,961 units, and the Opel Meriva up 22% and 8 spots to #32. Notice the Nissan Juke up to #39 for its first full year of sales. Other great performers this year in Europe include the Audi A1 at #42 the Peugeot 508 at #48 the Alfa Romeo Giulietta up 138% to #56 Kia Sportage up 131% to #69, Mini Countryman up 335% to #83 and Lexus CT landing directly at #161 and by far best-selling Lexus for its first year in market. Fully electric cars make a discreet appearance in this year's ranking but 2012 should see some of them really take off: the Mitsubishi i is #250 with 2,608 sales, followed by the Peugeot iOn at #258 with 1,926 units, the Citroen C-Zero at #260 and 1,830 sales, the Nissan Leaf at #264 with 1,726 units and the Opel Ampera at #304 and 304 sales. The DR Motor DR1 manufactured in Italy (in fact a rebadged Chery Riich G1) is once again the best-selling Chinese model in Europe but it has lost its spark at #259 with 1,886 units, down 40%. Let's conclude this article by observing that the Lamborghini Aventador sells its very first 63 units over the continent to rank #310. You can see 2010′s Top 371 best-selling models in Europe here: Previous year: Europe 2011 All-models Top 371 ranking (source JATO) Now for the usual golden nugget: those who have read up to here, I thank you profusely but you must be wondering where the heck is the best-selling car in the world, the Toyota Corolla? Yes I have kept the suspense up till the end. Well. Fact is when the Corolla hatchback was renamed Auris for the European market for the launch of the 11th generation 2007, it took most of the sales as the Corolla sedan has never been a favourite in Europe… Result: the Corolla is only #129 in Europe with a bit over 26,000 sales! Pretty lame… There. You are now an expert in all things European cars… Till next week dear readers! Thanks for listening. Source: Automotive News. I need to thank Tuga and Lancia Lover for sharing the data. Note 1: The 2010 figures beyond the Top 50 are calculated based on the 2011/2010 variation in percentages, therefore the exact sales number for 2010 may be slightly different. Note 2: The Top 318 list is incomplete and doesn't account for absolutely all models sold in Europe in 2011. If you have sales data for any additional model in the whole of Europe please make sure to get in touch by commenting on here! Note 3: This ranking includes sales from the 27 European Union countries minus Bulgaria and Malta, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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