Sales in December fell by 16.2% for the last month of year, with an overall drop of 8.2% for 2012, taking the market back to levels not seen since 1993.

LMC Automotive says that more concerning still is the way the decline in the market in the second half of the year. Given the current subdued state of economies in the region and the recent market selling rates, the company says this points to another difficult year in 2013 for the industry, with a circa 3% market volume fall forecast for Western Europe.

Looking at the major markets in the region, all apart from the UK have deteriorated over the past year – in some cases at a rapid pace.

Germany, which performed strongly over the first half of 2012, deteriorated quickly over the second half of the year as concerns over the Eurozone dragged consumer confidence down. LMC adds that December’s selling rate, at 2.7 million units/year, is easily the worst result since the market slump following the end of scrappage incentive support in 2010.

The Spanish market is particularly causing concern, finishing at just 700,000 units (down 57% on 2007). LMC says that the scrappage incentive programme (PIVE) has so far failed to significantly boost selling rates and both the economy and car market are expected to continue to contract this year due to fiscal austerity and high unemployment. Italy is another market well down on previous levels, with no quick turnaround expected there either.

For France, 2012 was the first significant contraction in the new car market in nine years, having earlier been supported during the 2009 recession via a scrappage incentive.

The UK went against the trend, with the car market comfortably up for the full year thanks to private retail sales. The full year result of 2.04 million units/year was the best result for four year