About a year ago, a wise man said: “The nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.” Since he is quite popular with the Germans, they seem to have done what they can to keep car sales up. After the cash-for-clunkers craze of 2009, the German market is now mostly saturated with entry-level cars. One would expect significantly lower numbers than “normal” for March 2010, but we Germans love our cars and run to the dealers, wallets ready. In March, however, Germans bought 294,375 vehicles, or 26.6% less than in March 2009.

Remember that Abwrackprämie (cash-for-clunkers) mostly spurred sales of small, cheap cars, and without it sales of city cars are down 45.4%, subcompacts are down 42.8% and mid-size down 21.1%. The premium midsize segment (5-series, A6, E-Class) is up 6.5%, and luxury car sales gained 1.1%.

Surprisingly, sports cars accelerated their sales by 16.3%, and RVs moved in 14.7% higher numbers as well, so look out for lots of Porsches overtaking lots of Volkswagen Californias if you plan a trip to Germany any time soon.

Brands:

1. Moving the most metal was, surprise surprise, Volkswagen. With 65,648 cars moved in March, the sales only dropped 9% from last year, proving that in economically choppy times, the people will buy the most conservative, bland option on the market – which for the German people is the “People’s car,” most importantly the Golf, but the Polo and Passat are also strong sellers.

2. A common stereotype about BMW drivers in Germany is that they will tailgate you at high speeds, creeping closer and flashing their lights until you let them pass. Basically, that’s what they did with Mercedes in this list, bullying them from #2 with very healthy sales of 27,047, or 9% more than in March 2009. The Germans’ favorite Bimmer was the 3-series, with the 1-series following on its heels.

3. Mercedes still managed to move 25,701 cars, or 6.1% less than last March. Since the average Mercedes buyer is… old, that’s a pretty decent result. Helping the bottom line are healthy sales of the E-Class. It looks like many taxi drivers will have a new ride soon.

4. There is a new Astra in town, and people like it: Opel seems to be back on track. After flirting with Italians and Canadians, it’s back to business as usual. And while sales are 30.9% worse than they were in 2009, 23,317 sales are still enough for #4.

5. Munich may be doing well, but Ingolstadt isn’t that far behind: The other Bavarians, Audi, moved 22,964 unit, which is a 7,8% improvement compared to 2009.

6. 11 minutes past 11 on November 11th in Cologne, the famous Cologne carnival, or “the fifth season,” starts. People dress colorfully, drink lots of test-tube sized beers and basically just become plainly too weird for the rest of the nation to understand. When everything is back to normal, the people of Cologne go back to work, which for many of them is the enormous Ford factory that’s been there since 1930. People inside and outside Cologne bought 20,113 sets of blue ovals and wheels, with the Focus and Fiesta being the bestsellers. However, sales were 29.8% worse than last year, so watch out for some sad faces at this year’s carnival.

7. Most Germans will eagerly defend German beer as the world’s best, but look into their fridges and surprisingly often you’ll find a six-pack of Staropramen. The excellent Czech brew has their automotive equivalent in the Å koda brand, though their recipe is not water, barley and hops. Instead it’s the latest Volkswagen technology, highly-skilled labor and low prices. This was enough to move 15,243 Å kodas, with the most important model being the subcompact Fabia. The weaker sales of subcompacts compared to 2009 mean a big hit for the Czech brand: minus 39.2% means hangover time, no matter how good the beer is.

8. Like the British, lots of Germans secretly wish they were a little bit more French. The food, the wine, and the style makes France a popular destination for holidays. It should come as no surprise, then, that some Germans prefer to haul their baguettes in an authentic Renault. The brand exported 12,291 cars to the Germans, with the most popular model being the compact Megane. Compared to 2009, sales fell by 31.6%.

9. Also no escargot, sales-wise, was Peugeot with 8,820 sales. The most important model was the subcompact 207. You know what’s coming now: minus 38.5%.

10. Forget about the Japanese. While Germans still prefer sushi over kimchi, most Japanese brands have lost sales massively. The Koreans, however, have invested wisely in engineering facilities in Germany and production facilities in Eastern Europe. It may come as no surprise, then, that Hyundai moved 7,987 cars. Since the most popular model is the i10 city car, it’s also no surprise that sales fell by 36.8%.

Filed under: By the Numbers, Industry News