Registrations across the 27-member European Union, also Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, witnessed a 6.6% decline on last year. Total unit sales for the region within this period free fell  to 1.5m vehicles, the lowest March sales month since 1998. 

As Government's in Europe struggle to contain and consolidate their debts, automakers including Toyota, BMW and Peugeot are predicting a 5% decline in the market by the end of this year. Such a philosophy would only be aided by the regions poor first quarter figures, as total unit sales over the first three months fell by 7.3% to 3.4m vehicles sold.

Whilst many automakers felt the pinch in March, more so by Fiat, whose European sales fell by 26% to 81,469 unit sales – the market's decline was somewhat offset in part by the slight growth of German automakers. Volkswagen (+1.7%), BMW (+3.2%) and Daimler (+5.1%) each posted positive results for last month.