SALES of lower and upper-medium vehicles throughout Western Europe during October were up on the same month last year - the first year-on-year monthly increase for the sectors since January 2002.

It comes as the sales growth for small MPVs slows across many European countries, new research into the new car market in Western Europe produced by business information specialist JATO Dynamics reveals.

A spokesman said: 'Carmakers will be watching closely to see if any sustained recovery of these two high-volume segments could be related to a decline of small MPVs and SUVs, which have cannibalised sales of more traditional passenger car offerings in the recent past.'

New registrations in Western Europe dropped by more than 2.3% over October 2003 to 1,179,658 units. However, year-to-date the market has grown by 1.1% to 12,601,822 units.

Figures show that the only countries where sales have increased in October over the same month last year were Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal and the Netherlands.

In terms of segments, sales in the lower-medium sector, with vehicles including the Volkswagen Golf, Peugeot 307 and Renault Megane, are up for the month of October, as they are in the upper-medium, with vehicles like the Peugeot 407, Volkswagen Passat and Ford Mondeo topping the segment sales list.

But sales in the premium lower-medium sector and premium upper medium sector are experiencing differing fortunes.

The former is experiencing growth while the latter has fallen, both in October and for the year-to-date.