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2013 was a year of varying successes and failures, however overall 2013 was most probably the year that the Europe wide fall in sales finally flat-lined, there were some huge stories that hit the worldwide media over the last twelve months, namely the takeover of Chrysler by FIAT, VW's continued dominance in Europe, followed far far behind by the PSA group, who themselves are in continued talks about mergers, takeovers and financial dire straits.
But the main story, well on this blog, is the brilliant news that Jaguar Land Rover carry on where they left off 2012, and thats higher sales, better profits, more models, and more improvement in reliability. as well as the awards, that just flowed month after month to JLR, The stunning F-Type, new Sport and the big daddy, Range Rover, all said hello, and like a hound after a hare, the sales shot off, at a high rate of knots, the next few years will be a huge one for JLR, with massive investment, the new Engine plant at Wolverhampton UK, comes on stream this year, the new 3-Series competitor will emerge, as well as the new XF, and SUV.
The last year or two have been devoted to getting Range Rover right, this has been done, now it is the turn of Land Rover and Jaguar, with the Freelander name disappearing and being replaced with the Discovery moniker making Discovery a brand in its own right, but this is not all, a brand new plant in India, China, Mexico and Saudi Arabia are all with built, building or in the planning stages, JLR will become a huge company, one that the likes of BMW and Mercedes will do well to keep their eyes on.
SEAT and Skoda saved VAG by adding over 40,000 models to the 2012 sales, but VW, AUDI and Porsche all took hits keeping 13's sales below 12's, however the mighty VAG will not rest on its laurels, they did sell nearly three million cars in the EU last year, and nearly Ten Million worldwide, so a few thousand is really nothing, but I am sure that there will be meetings and conversations high up to fathom out the issues and processes put in place to ensure it does not happen this year.
The French brands fared little better, -8.4% for the PSA company and up 4.4% for Renault Group, however it was the Dacia brand that saved Renault, and a massive first year in the UK where it sold over 17,000 cars in its first year, not bad for an unknown brand, its seems that the UK customer did indeed do the maths (reference to the UK TV advertising "Dacia - You do the maths"), Peugeot and Citroen, for two old brands, with great products 2013 was a let down, but 2014 will be better, Peugeot will have the youngest range of products in its history, Citroen will continue with the DS brand and push it further into China, and with the 308 coming on stream worldwide, along with the 208 and 2008, this year will be a significant year for the French giants.
FIAT Group, well, where to start, what a rubbish year in Europe, every brand in their portfolio fell, even the great Ferrari didn't do exceptionally well in Europe, Alfa needs a Miracle, Lancia needs putting to sleep, FIAT needs billions of euros to turn it around, and Chrysler just has not succeeded in the EU, the real story with FIAT is the takeover of Chrylser and the continued slide of Alfa Romeo, it is surely going to take a vast amount of money and talent to get FIAT Group back on top.
Of the other US brands, both had minor falls, Ford dropped 3.2% and GM by 4.3% with Vauxhall saving GM further embarrassment, by increasing sales by over 11% in the UK, adding 20,000 extra sales, 2014 will be interesting to watch, to see if the announcement of Chevrolet pulling out of Europe will effect sales, I am sure that GM wont be advertising the fact, as any sales are worthwhile, even if they are pulling out.
The so called premium brands, BMW and Mercedes were complete opposites, with BMW+MINI dropping and Mercedes+SMART rising, of the remaining brands in Europe only Kia and Mazda managed to increase sales on the previous year, but with the majority of the drops only small numbers, just saying drop or rise is a little innocuous, overall the Europe market dropped by a rather insignificant 1.7%, but that 1.7% equates to about 200,000 sales, and that's not to be ignored.
2014 will be a year of change, more emphasis on China for a lot of brands will bolster sagging sales elsewhere, most companies have significant new car releases this year, so again sales figures will be buoyant, and with the increased sales, the fight for customers will start again, with various offers, finance packages and deals to tempt, even the most tight fisted buyer, these in turn will start the spiral that eventually ended up with the entire worldwide market crashing back in 2008, have any of the Motor Manufacturers taken note and will they act accordingly, don't be silly, it will just carry on as before, the belts will tighten, and gradually they will slip, and sometime in the future, we will all be back here doing the same thing.
In the mean time, enjoy the great new cars that are due this year, and take advantage of any and all offers that are around, and remember, at the end of the day, it is only a car, and not life and death, duh, what a lot of rubbish, we live for cars around here, and any new car is met with a smile and a great deal of interest, that's why we publish all we can. Enjoy them all and here is to the next 11 months of new releases, hopefully better sales and lots of interesting news and gossip from around the world.
Jon Mower
Mazda's Smart City Brake Support system uses infrared and radar signals to automatically brake and avoid rear-end collisions at speeds under 30km/h.
