EUROPEAN car makers held down the prices of new vehicles in the five largest car markets during the third quarter of this year because of falling or slower sales, new research has found.

Despite pressure to increase prices because of higher production costs, competition in the market is forcing car-makers to keep them down.

This is according to new research produced in the latest European Car Market Prices and Volumes report from pricing analyst eurocarprice.com.

Operations director Robin Goodyer said: ‘The level of price increases reported this quarter has fallen in every market.

‘There is still pressure for all the manufacturers to increase prices to improve their returns, but the continuing reluctance of the market volumes to increase is forcing the manufacturers to compete heavily on price.’

He added that in the UK sales are likely to fall below those of last year’s so ‘opportunities for price rises are limited’.

Goodyer said the overall European market was showing signs of a recovery ‘as the decline in German and French sales recedes, albeit at a very slow rate’.

He continued: ‘We still expect to see higher price rises in Germany, although this is likely to be contingent on an increasing market. As with Germany, French price rises are expected as the market starts to grow.’

  • Visit www.eurocarprice.com/reports