New car registrations in Germany, Europe's biggest auto market, fell 10 percent in April to 282,000 units, the VDA industry association said on Thursday, noting the month had three fewer sales days than April 2005.
"Adjusted for working days, new car registrations were 5 percent above the year-earlier level," it said. The long Easter weekend fell in April this year but in March during 2005.
New car registrations rose 1 percent in the first four months to 1.08 million vehicles, it said in a statement, citing preliminary figures. "The domestic market is still volatile. A wide-ranging recovery is not yet in sight," VDA said.
The drop in Germany confirms the choppy picture unfolding across Europe last month.
French car sales fell 6.7 percent in April but rose 3.2 percent using the same number of working days, the French car industry association CCFA said on Tuesday.
For the first four months of the year, total French new car registrations were down 1.8 percent on a same-working-days basis.
In Spain sales of new cars dropped over 10 percent year-on-year in April, compounding a negative trend which began late last year and which was broken only briefly in March.
The number of new car registrations stood at 119,394 units last month, down 10.5 percent from April last year, Spain's National Carmakers' Association ANFAC said on Wednesday.
Italian new car registrations for April fell 6.6 percent, the first decline this year. ANFIA, an industry body, blamed the lower sales on the country's national election, two long weekends and fewer working days compared with the same month last year. It said sales would have otherwise risen 4.1 percent.
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