Renault SA, Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG felt the pinch as European sales of new cars dropped 1.5 percent in September, largely due to a slide in German sales figure from a year ago.
Carmakers' association ACEA said Tuesday that the German car market, Europe's largest, slipped by 11 percent compared with September 2006, when show rooms were thronged with car buyers trying to cash in before a Jan. 1 sales tax hike.
Other major car markets grew slowly or not at all, failing to compensate for Germany's poor performance.
The major loser among carmakers was France's troubled Renault, which saw sales plunge 11.3 percent. Japanese Toyota was down 7.2 percent, while Volkswagen AG, Europe's best-selling car company, fell 6.8 percent and lost market share to take 18 percent of all new cars sold.
Read Article