In its latest West European report, LMCA says that car sales in Western Europe grew by 11.8% in December. For 2013 overall, car registrations fell back 1.9% compared with 2012.

The market finished the year strongly as the selling rate climbed to 12.3 million units/year, only the second time in 2013 that the selling rate has been above 12.0 million units/year. All major markets were up in year‐on‐year terms in December, though a very strong result for the Netherlands provided a significant lift — the latter market saw a pull forward in sales prior to stricter CO2 taxation. The UK finished the year with a flourish, up 23.8% in December with both private and fleet sales doing well. The UK market was the only major market to see significant growth last year, helped by low interest rates, windfalls from PPI mis‐selling settlements and a general pick up in economic activity.

The German market disappointed in 2013 as registrations fell back to under 3.0 million units. France and Italy were both also lower for the full year, with the latter market seeing selling rates continue to struggle at around 1.3 million units/year for most of the year.

The Spanish market was a little higher, though at 720,000 units it still looks desperately weak by historical standards — it has continued to be supported by scrappage incentivisation, highlighting further the market's fragile state.

LMCA added that the strength of West European registrations in December helped ensure that the second half of 2013 eclipsed the corresponding period the previous year. However, the poor start to 2013 meant the market was down 1.9% overall.

Concluding, the company said: ‘The generally positive evolution of selling rates over 2013 bodes well for growth in 2014, as does the expectation of expansion in the wider economy. At this stage though, we remain cautious that any major improvement will take place in 2014, forecasting modest growth of 2‐3%.’