NEW car sales across Europe for the year to date are up slightly on the same period last year, new figures show.

Cumulative figures for the first eight months of the year produced by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) show an increase of 0.4%. Positive results were posted in 14 countries but negative results were recorded for France (-1.9%), Spain (-2%) and the UK (-4.3%). EFTA countries (European Free Trade Association) performed slightly better (+0.9%) than the EU23 (+0.4%) and new member states suffered a slight slowdown (-0.8%), mainly influenced by the Polish (-6.3%) and Czech (-4.4%) results.

Country		Jan-Aug 06		Jan-Aug 05		Variance
Austria		217,771		218,900		-0.5%
Belgium		393,988		351,853		+12.0%
Denmark		104,221		97,326		+7.1%
Finland		108,030		109,287		-1.2%
France		1,374,733		1,401,051		-1.9%
Germany		2,246,496		2,233,236		+0.6%
Greece		198,608		200,640		-1.0%
Ireland		166,017		158,209		+4.9%
Italy		1,613,705		1,540,032		+4.8%
Luxembourg		37,327		35,385		5.5%
Netherlands		357,060		344,767		+3.6%
Portugal		139,788		147,170		-5.0%
Spain		1,047,766		1,069,501		-2.0%
Sweden		185,348		174,713		+6.1%
UK		1,487,898		1,554,828		-4.3%
European Union		9,678,756		9,636,898		+0.4%
Iceland		13,460		12,900		+4.3%
Norway		71,872		73,109		-1.7%
Switzerland		183,624		180,493		+1.7%
EFTA		268,956		266,502		+0.9%
EU15+EFTA		9,947,712		9,903,400		+0.4%
Czech Republic		83,798		87,680		-4.4%
Estonia		16,322		13,426		+21.6%
Hungary		127,041		127,364		-0.3%
Latvia		15,527		10,355		+49.9%
Lithuania		8,694		6,937		+25.3%
Poland		156,279		166,790		-6.3%
Slovakia		38,835		37,717		+3.0%
Slovenia		42,092		42,255		-0.4%
EU (new members)		488,588		492,524		-0.8%
European Union*		10,167,344		10,129,422		+0.4%
Total Europe (EU+EFTA)**		10,436,300		10,395,924		+0.4%