(Tue 20 May 08)

The Volkswagen Golf was the top-selling car in Europe in April, according to the latest figures published by JATO Dynamics.

Nearly 46,000 Golfs were registered during the months, compared with just over 42,207 Peugeot 207s. These were the most popular models by a considerable margin - the Renault Clio, Vauxhall/Opel Astra and Ford Focus managed around 34,000 registrations each.

Volkswagen is also the most successful manufacturer overall, not just in April but for 2008 so far, with 3.2% more registrations than in the first fourth months of last year. Ford is second in the year-to-date list, followed by Vauxhall/Opel, Renault, Peugeot and Fiat.

Volkswagen and Fiat are the only manufacturers in the top six to have improved on their year-to-date performances this year despite a rise in registrations across the market as a whole. Other climbers are BMW (11.7%) and Mercedes-Benz (5.5%).

Germany is the first European country to have exceeded one million registrations in 2008. Italy is next on 870,575 (a considerable drop from last year) while the UK is third on 859,005, almost exactly matching the 2007 figure.

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