Car Market Switzerland: 1960's

Things were so different back in the 60's in the Swiss car market. GM Euro makes Opel and Vauxhall were both imported. Fords were from Germany, Britain and the US. BMC brands still had credibility and sold well. Chrysler sales were mainly Simca, but also newly acquired Sunbeam from Britain and US models too. NSU was still to be absorbed by VW into the Audi marque. Triumph were part of Leyland, soon to become the new BLMC conglomerate. The same applied to Rover/Land Rover. How things changed in the next few years.

Below is listed sales for 1964, brand/sales/share:

Opel-Vaux 24,473 18.3%
VW 22,604 16.9%
Ford 14,186 10.6%
BMC 11,427 8.6%
Fiat 10,019 7.5%
Chrysler 9,133 6.8%
Peugeot 6,172 4.6%
Renault 5,929 4.4%
Citroen 5,320 4.0%
Volvo 3,256 2.4%
Mercedes 3,055 2.3%
GM US 2,820 2.1%
Auto Union 2,705 2.0%
Triumph 1,799 1.3%
Alfa Romeo 1,761 1.3%
BMW 1,434 1.1%
Land Rover 818 0.6%
NSU 742 0.6%
Lancia 512 0.4%
Jaguar 500 0.4%
AMC 464 0.3%
Porsche 406 0.3%
Rover 358 0.3%
Saab 266 0.2%
Other 3,476 2.6%
Total 133,635

There are no Japanese makes in the above list. That invasion started at the end of the 1960's and quickly made strong inroads thereafter.

Data Source: Schweiz Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS)
Pics: Simca - http://sv.wikipedia.org
Opel - www.velocityjournal.com

The Rover 600

This was a car I really liked, although it wasn't as successful as it deserved. The 600 was basically a Honda Accord, which wasn't a bad thing. It was tweaked so as to have a British feel to it, and that worked quite well. For European tastes it was probably too Japanese. When I was on holiday in the UK, I met an American chap who had a rental 600. I asked him his opinion of the car and he loved it. He wanted to buy one back home, but they were not exported there - at Honda's insistence.

I don't know if it replaced another car, but if it did, I'm picking it carried on from the Montego. The Rover 600 started to be produced in 1993, the Montego finishing in 1994. The six years of production figures are as below, followed by UK sales:

1993 30,394
1994 54,603
1995 61,518
1996 43,701
1997 40,291
1998 40,815
Total 271,322

1993 14,454
1994 23,397
1995 24,200
1996 19,900
1997 22,300
1998 ?

So it was a good car, but lacked in prestige and dynamics. It was replaced by the Rover 75, but that model came a bit too late and the 75 never even matched the 600's production volume.

Pics: www.autoplenum.de
Sales figures: http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/

Car Market Spain: 1960's

Getting guaranteed car sales data for Spain is difficult. From what I did find, the market back in the 60's was limited to brands made within the country. In 1961, less than 70,000 cars were sold so not a market big enough to support many manufacturing plants. Sales grew well and by 1969, perhaps 380,000 cars were sold.

Below are the sales as accurate I could get for 1969:


Make/Sales/Share
1 Seat 222,000 58.8%
2 Renault 73,000 19.4%
3 Simca 28,500 7.5%
4 Citroen 22,500 5.9%
Others 31,800 8.4%
Total 380,000


Some may wonder about the brand Seat - pronounced 'say - at'. Well, when the Spanish government decided to have a local brand, both Fiat and VW sought to be the alliance partner. Fiat won and by 1950, the first Seat cars came off the assembly line. Then a falling out in the early 1980s between the Spanish government and Fiat led to Fiat leaving the venture and VW quickly moved to replace them.

Today, Seat fights with other brands for market leadership and its share is about 9%. The Spanish car buyer has plenty of choice in the car market now. No one brand can command even a 10% share, quite a unique situation.

Car Market Germany: 1970's

In the 70's things were changing steadily in the German car market. The top three brands lost ground, especially Ford. Meanwhile, the three premium brands closed in as more affluent German buyers could afford to move up a level of quality. Japanese brands were starting to feature and import European car makers were feeling their presence. In 1979 sales and market share were as below:

1 VW 580,575 22.1%
2 Opel 471,900 18.0%
3 Ford 311,925 11.9%
4 Audi 246,650 9.4%
5 Mercedes 242,850 9.3%
6 BMW 153,925 5.9%
7 Renault 129,750 4.9%
8 Fiat 83,200 3.2%
9 Citroen 50,700 1.9%
10 Talbot 43,950 1.7%
11 Peugeot 41,150 1.6%
12 Toyota 32,500 1.2%
13 Mazda 32,400 1.2%
14 Nissan 32,000 1.2%
15 Honda 28,700 1.1%
16 Volvo 25,000 1.0%
17 Alfa Rom 22,750 0.9%
18 Mitsubishi 20,725 0.8%
19 Porsche 12,000 0.5%
20 GM US 11,425 0.4%
21 FSO 11,275 0.4%
22 Lada 10,650 0.4%
23 BLMC 9,700 0.4%
Sonstige 17,750 0.7%
Insgesamt 2,623,400

Since then, the three German premium brands have taken an even stronger hold while the Asian threat faltered as Japanese brands failed to increase their market share. Overall the German market now seems to be rather predictable, strong support for local product and foreign makes largely on the periphery.

Source: VDA

Car Market Germany: 1960s

Car purchasing in Germany in the 1960's reflected the growing prosperity. Sales in 1960 were 970,000 but had almost doubled to 1,840,000 by 1969. VW was the biggest brand, capturing 32.5% of the market in 1965. GM Opel was a stable second and got a respectable 25.5% in 1964. Ford kept third spot warm and obtained an 18.3% share in 1966. Mercedes was a regular at 4th, until the merger of NSU and Auto Union into Audi in 1968 pushed past the three pointed star. Fiat and Renault were popular back then and top ten regulars. BMW only had 2.3% of the market in 1965, but in 1966 it purchased the Glas car company and seemed to strengthen after that. The top 20 as best I can determine in 1969 was as follows:

Rank/Brand/Sales/Share
1 Volkswagen 470,000 25.5%
2 Opel 350,000 19.0%
3 Ford 288,000 15.6%
4 Audi 134,500 7.3%
5 Mercedes 127,300 6.9%
6 Fiat 123,500 6.7%
7 Renault 112,500 6.1%
8 BMW 77,000 4.2%
9 Simca 54,000 2.9%
10 Peugeot 26,800 1.5%
11 Citroen 21,700 1.2%
12 NecKar 13,800 0.7%
13 Alfa Romeo 8,800 0.5%
14 DAF 8,500 0.5%
15 Volvo 4,000 0.2%
16 Skoda 3,500 0.2%
17 Porsche 3,100 0.2%
18 Honda 1,700 0.1%
19 Autobianchi 1,200 0.1%
20 Hanomag 1,050 0.1%
Sonstige (Other) 11,000 0.6%
Insgesamt (Total) 1,841,000

The 1960's started with virtually all German cars, but imports made inroads over the decade - mainly French and Italian. I'm unsure as to why British cars didn't figure. Mind you, with a 11,000 others, anything could be lurking there.

Quelle: VDA

The Minor Car Brand

I wrote an article recently and it featured car sales in Sweden from the 1950's. I asked for help as I was looking for a German brand, not Czech and found nothing. I made a mistake of reading Tj (Tjeckien - Czech) as Ty (Tyskland - Germany). Then I got this email shown below. A big thanks to Roul for his kind assistance:

Dear Mr. RayCee,

With pleasure I follow your blog and read your question about the Minor. I could remember the Minor from some old car magazines I own. In a solid car book I also found some additional information about the brand.

There are several car brands with Minor in the name. It turned out that all those names are related: Jawa Minor. The car was by the way not German, but built in the Czech Republic between 1945 and 1950. Aero was an (sports)aircraft factory, that started (sports)car production in 1928. During WW2 and without de knowledge of the German oppressor it had been working on a new car: the Aero Pony/P and the 1500/R.

In 1947 till the end of the car brand its successor at first was called Aero-Minor II and later on just Minor. It was a car with front wheel drive, a two stroke engine of 616 cm3 that produced 20 HP at 3500 rpm. Back in ‘48 it was the first car who concurred the Sahara dessert without any technical problems!

From that car I could not find a review or a proper photo, but I did find a few (hilarious) Dutch adverts. I include two scans of those adverts in this mail.



The first one is dated 1948 (November 3). A translation of the text: “It came, saw and conquered, this elegant car mend for four persons, with a three speed gearbox, an overdrive and front wheel drive. Hydraulic brakes and independent springs on all four wheels. The exceedingly strong 20 hp engine, economical as a Scotchman (1 -liter- to 12 -kilometers-), can take you over a distance of 90 kilometers. Price f (Dutch Florin) 3535 (in that time a VW Beetle was priced at NFL 3460); from stock deliverable”.


The second one is dated 1950 (October 7): the price has risen and the fuel consumption went down. Together enclosed this advert make you believe that it is your choice: less mileage with your current car or a Minor with a low fuel consumption! It appears to me, that nothing has changed since then, only the number of car brands.

How many cars Minor in totally could sell, I don’t know.

I hope this is (a part of) the information you were looking for.

Regards

Roul

Car Sales In Sweden From 1950 Forward

The car market in 1950 was very different from today. WW 2 had devastated Europe, although neutral Sweden didn't feel it the same way. What was then Nuffield (mainly Morris) had 6.8% of the Swedish market in 1950 and Austin had 6%.


Standard/Triumph had 5.3%, Rootes (Hillman, Humber etc) had 3%, a German car brand Minor? (can anyone help with that one?) had 1.8%, Jowett 1.1% and Borgward 1.0%. All those names are consigned to history but were strong sellers in Sweden back in 1950.

As for the big guns, their their rank in the Swedish market and sales for that selected year is below. A big thanks to bilsweden:

Year	Volv		VW		Ford		Saab
1950	3	7,400	2	8,250	1	10,100	15	950
1960	1	25,000	2	30,800	4	16,400	5	13,750
1970	1	53,850	4	20,675	5	14,550	2	34,750
1980	1	50,550	3	18,700	5	16,900	2	27,600
1990	1	47,600	5	17,550	2	23,400	3	19,550
2000	1	54,900	3	30,550	4	18,100	2	27,100
2010	1	53,700	2	35,700	4	17,850	13	8,675

Toyota, an unknown brand of 1950, was 3rd in 2010 with 21,600 sales. The Fords of 1950 were 70% sourced from the UK, and as you can see the top selling brand back then. Volvo soon took that spot and has held it for decades now.

The world car industry was so different then. Popular car makes have gone and small or yet to exist makes are now successful. Change is gradual, so scarcely noticed. However, when taking a leap back in time, we realise that things are always changing - and quite radically in some ways.


Jowett pic: http://www.cartype.com/pages/2400/jowett_brochures

The Trekka

In 1960's New Zealand, there were restrictions on car availability to reduce imports and therefore protect the balance of payments. By locally making an agricultural vehicle, they could make as many as the market would take. This lead to the Trekka vehicle.


The running gear was sourced from communist Czechoslovakian company Skoda. It wasn't any good off road but as a runabout for farmers and tradesmen, it had some merit. A joke going around at the time was that it couldn't pull a skin off a rice pudding*.


It sold in modest numbers until import restrictions were eased, and punters went for superior vehicles that were now available. Between 1967 and 1973, about 2,500 were made, with a few exported to nearby pacific nations.



Often protected markets leads entrepreneurs to create novel ways to get cars to the public, and the Trekka was a fine example of a NZ effort in that regard.

*A rice pudding is a creamy desert which forms a nice skin over the top whilst cooking.

Pic: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/cars-and-the-motor-industry/2/4

Car Sales In Finland From 1956

When looking back on car sales for the land of a thousand lakes, you realise how different things were in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to the good folk of AKE, we can get a glimpse of that time.

For the period between 1956 and now, the lowest sales were in 1958 when under 14,500 were sold, while it peaked at almost 176,800 in 1989.

Due to not having a local car maker, Finns have no particular allegiance to a brand, as you can see by the frequent changing of the best selling marque in the country. Below is the top car make, followed by the consecutive years it was the leading brand:

Moskvitch 56 57
Volkswagen 58
Moskvitch 59 60 61 62
Ford 63 64
Volkswagen 65 66 67
Ford 68 69 70
Fiat 71 72 73 74 75
Saab 76 77 78
Nissan 79 80 81 82 83 84
Toyota 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
Opel 94 95 96
Volkswagen 97
Opel 98 99
Toyota 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Volkswagen 11

Fifteen switches of leader, covering seven makes. It must be some sort of record. Of the brands, have you heard of the Moskvitch? It was a Russian car brand that after WW2, made a car based heavily on the Opel Kadet and they proved to be sturdy, affordable cars. As seen above, it was popular in Finland for a time. Toyota has had the longest stretches of leadership, but is about to lose it to VW this year.

Finland: a fascinating country, with an equally interesting car market.

Pic: http://www.apexreplicas.com.au/road-car/640122613-moskwitch-408e.html

Triumph UK Car Sales: 1965-1985

Triumph motor cars were nice cars, a step up from the everyday personal transport. Quality saloon cars and stylish sports cars made up the range. The main market for them was the UK, and they sold well there. Unfortunately, BL didn't invest in the brand and it gradually died out. Below are UK sales and market share from 1965 to its demise:

1965 * 61,200 5.3%
1966 * 70,900 6.5%
1967 * 86,900 7.6%
1968 * 80,600 7.0%
1969 * 64,700 6.7%
1970 * 64,000 5.9%
1971 * 86,500 6.7%
1972 * 91,900 5.6%
1973 * 90,700 5.5%
1974 * 69,200 5.4%
1975 * 47,100 3.9%
1976 * 49,100 3.8%
1977 * 45,900 3.5%
1978 * 29,200 1.8%
1979 * 21,700 1.3%
1980 * 17,400 1.1%
1981 * 14,600 1.0%
1982 * 44,500 2.9%
1983 * 38,500 2.1%
1984 * 10,500 0.6%
1985 * * * 180 0.0%
1986 * * * 90 0.0%

The peak year of '67 saw 33,100 Herald/Vitesse, 1300 model 28,700, 2000/2500 17,000 and 8,100 sports cars sold in the UK. A sales spurt in the early 80's for the Acclaim model (based on a Honda Ballade), but then the curtain fell.

I see Triumph as a car that lived up to its name, but ultimately poor British management led to it becoming a name consigned to history. BMW currently own the name I believe, and I cannot see them doing anything with it. For those who still own one, enjoy.

To read about the Triumph car company  click here 


Pic 2500: http://triumph2000register.co.uk
Pic Dolomite: www.little-triumphs.de
Pic GT6: www.allposters.co.uk

BMW vs Merc vs Audi: Germany

The sales war between the three German premium brands is intense. How that battle has played out is interesting, no more so than in the domestic market. NSU and Auto Union were separate brands but combined to become Audi in 1969. I treat them as one company - Audi - throughout. The chart shows the year, then rank in the German market, sales figure and market share:

Yr		Mercedes				BMW				Audi
1963	5	80500	6.3%		8	31400	2.5%		4	92900	7.3%
1965	4	91500	6.0%		8	34700	2.3%		5	84800	5.6%
1970	6	145500	6.9%		8	86700	4.1%		4	158500	7.5%
1975	4	175500	9.3%		5	128600	6.1%		7	107600	5.1%
1980	4	249900	10.3%		6	138900	5.7%		5	209700	8.6%
1985	3	273500	11.5%		5	144400	6.1%		6	130200	5.5%
1990	4	261400	8.6%		5	191000	6.3%		6	167500	5.5%
1995	4	250300	7.6%		5	214900	6.5%		6	206400	6.2%
2000	3	409200	12.1%		5	237800	7.0%		6	234400	6.9%
2005	3	343900	10.3%		4	263900	7.9%		5	248800	7.4%
2010	2	281200	9.6%		3	235300	8.1%		5	226900	7.8%

MB has been the leader here since the mid 60's, and BMW has been the smoothest in its progression forward - its sales gaining in every period listed. So far in 2011, all have lost market share and BMW has fallen to 4th behind Opel.

In comparison to other premium brands, in 2010 Volvo sold 25,800 (0.9%), Jaguar only 3,200 (0.1%) and Lexus merely 2,050 (0.1%). Strong bias shown here.

In summary: Germany's three premium brands have proved most successful indeed.

Quelle: Kraftfahrt–Bundesamt

VW vs Opel vs Ford: Germany

There are three brands in Germany that have been the mass production car makers. Below we see the year, sales, position in the market and percentage of the market captured:

Year	VW			Opel			Ford
1963	378,000	1	29.7%	302,000	2	23.7%	198,000	3	15.6%
1965	494,000	1	32.5%	331,000	2	21.8%	278,000	3	18.3%
1970	512,000	1	24.3%	406,000	2	19.2%	310,000	3	14.7%
1975	481,000	1	22.9%	382,000	2	18.2%	287,000	3	13.6%
1980	526,000	1	21.7%	406,000	2	16.7%	252,000	3	10.4%
1985	550,000	1	23.1%	368,000	2	15.5%	255,000	4	10.7%
1990	610,000	1	20.0%	522,000	2	17.2%	299,000	3	9.8%
1995	644,000	1	19.4%	561,000	2	16.9%	376,000	3	11.3%
2000	644,000	1	19.1%	412,000	2	12.2%	239,000	4	7.1%
2005	622,000	1	18.6%	348,000	2	10.4%	247,000	6	7.4%
2010	614,000	1	21.0%	234,000	3	8.0%	198,000	6	6.8%

Opel took top spot two consecutive years in the early 70's but that didn't show on the list. VW slipped in market share over the years, but has fought back recently. Opel was a real threat to VW, but now battles to fend off premium brands. Ford has failed to keep its share and is outsold by all three German premium brands.

In summary: VW is not as good as the chart indicates, but it is the real German brand and that is patriotism. Opel has recently under invested while propping up GM North America and it shows. Ford is better than its position in Germany indicates, but it obviously suffers with its image to now be so low in market share.

Quelle: Kraftfahrt–Bundesamt
Pic: www.philseed.com/rekord-a.html

Proton vs Perodua

The Malaysian car market has import duties, restricting sales of cars to almost exclusively locally made or assembled. The two local brand names are Proton (lower pic with the girls) and Perodua (upper pic). Proton does its own designs based on Mitsubishis, lately with some assistance from Lotus. Perodua make Daihatsus under license. So how do they fare? Back in 1993, the earliest year I have data for, Proton sold 74,500 cars in Malaysia, accounting for a whopping 74% of the market! Perodua started selling cars a year later but soon made inroads into Proton's domination. Below is a comparison of how they have progressed since the early 90's. The figures show the year, sales, market position, then percentage share of the market:

Year	Proton			Perodua
1995	140,600	1	62.5%	29,900	2	17.7%
2000	179,000	1	63.4%	82,500	2	29.2%
2005	166,100	1	41.4%	134,200	2	33.5%
2010	147,700	2	28.9%	188,600	1	34.7%

You can see that Perodua has run down Proton and moved past it for a comfortable lead. It shows that Proton has to lift its game with its cars if it is to compete, not only if it has international aspirations, but even domestically. Proton tried to procure a tie up with VW but it fell through in 1996, as VW wanted to eventually take over Proton rather than just being a partner. However, Proton is still working with Mitsubishi and has had success in exporting some cars to China.

With its highly protected market, Malaysians have limited choice when it comes to buying everyday cars, hence most have to choose between these two brands. They do not directly compete with product, and the advantage Perodua has it is in the very price sensitive small car segment. Proton will have more pressure from other brands in the larger cars it sells.

Some MG Rover Sales Peaks Of The 90's

When BMW took over MG Rover, they lost Honda as MGR's partner and cost savings associated with the tie-up. BMW's bizarre response was to quickly ramp up sales to get volumes and maintain profitability. However, you simply cannot turn a relatively small, almost niche manufacturer into a much larger company over night. MGR quickly sank into red ink and BMW mocked it's "English patient', rather than admit it screwed up big time.
Anyway, the brief sales flurry of the relatively small company did produce a few highlights. Below are sales from peaks in the 90's in certain markets, market share and rankings:

1997 Italy 57,700 2.4% 10th two years running
1994 France 47,000 2.4% 8th three consecutive years
1998 Spain 23,000 1.9% 11th
1998 Portugal 6,600 2.7% 11th (10th one year)

Some good figures and market shares there. All these figures exclude Land Rover, they cover the car range only. The problem is shown in the statistics above. Notice how only Southern European nations appear. Northern Europeans were not as keen, especially the critical UK home market, where sales were high but declining through the decade. Of course BMW needed a partner to replace Honda - not just sales - as they would never be enough to support MGR carrying new model development costs on its own. BMW know how to manage premium brands but not mass produced ones. It is all about big volumes at the lower end.

Now SAIC will try to do what BMW failed so badly at, getting MGs back on the roads en masse. They will do a better job eventually, but with more patience shown.

Toyota vs Nissan: Japan

Traditionally the big two car brands in Japan are Toyota and Nissan. In 1975 for example, their combined sales accounted for nearly 70% of the Japanese market! (See chart below). Understandably, that hasn't been maintained. In fact, Nissan has slipped to third occasionally of late; the italicised figures below show when on this chart that occurred. The 2011 sales figure is for the first six months of the year. All sales figures are in thousands, so please add three zeros:

Year	Toyota		Nissan
1970	709,000	29.8%	588,000	24.7%
1975	1,073,000	39.2%	856,000	29.4%
1980	1,064,000	37.3%	828,000	29.0%
1985	1,323,000	42.6%	781,000	25.2%
1990	1,893,000	37.1%	1,057,000	20.7%
1995	1,373,000	31.2%	827,000	14.0%
2000	1,216,000	28.5%	691,000	11.8%
2005	1,507,000	31.8%	744,000	15.7%
2010	1,415,000	33.6%	566,000	13.4%
2011	433,000	26.9%	244,000	15.1%

The 2011 figure is ugly for Toyota, although in any other context over a quarter of the market for a brand would be considered good. Nissan on the other hand is making a bit of a comeback with more interesting cars than many of its rivals.

When you add all the other Japanese brands to these two, you realise how insignificant import brands are in the country. With a mixture of crafty measures and strong loyalty, foreign makes remain on the periphery.


Figures: JAMA

Ten Years & Two Million MINIs

BMW's MINI has hit a double milestone. There have been ten years of building the new 'not so mini' MINI at Oxford, England and in that time two million of them have also rolled off the production line. Over the last decade, one Mini has been made at the plant every 68 seconds. That is impressive by any standards.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron took this photo opportunity, where he also congratulated workers on the achievement. He also toured the new production line presently being constructed, where the next generation BMW Mini is to be made.

The car was a MINI Cooper Convertible as you can see, with an ugly decal on the door. This MINI is to be won in a Facebook giveaway. Being a left hand drive car could be interesting if the winner drives on the other side of the road.

MINI has been a good export earner for the UK, with in excess of 1.5 million of them exported. In the first half of 2011, the principal overseas markets were USA (29,800), Germany (20,200), France (10,800) and Italy (10,600). The UK total was 24,600.

Opel vs VW: Nederland

For decades GM Opel was easily the top brand in the Netherlands. Of late VW came up as an opponent and what ensued can be seen below. The first column is the year, 2nd - Opel's sales followed by position in the market and percentage of market held, 3rd - the same but for VW:

Year	Opel			VW
1985	88,000	1	17.7%	39,000	3	7.8%
1990	72,000	1	14.2%	39,000	4	7.8%
1995	63,000	1	14.1%	48,000	2	11.7%
2000	77,000	1	12.9%	71,000	2	11.9%
2005	44,000	2	9.6%	45,000	1	9.7%
2010	23,000	5	7.0%	35,000	1	10.7%

Opel's market share is down from nearly 18% to only 7% in that time and its position from 1st to 5th. VW meanwhile has increased share by three percentage points and gone top from 4th in 1990. GM has been strapped for cash at times and the product, while OK, is not class leading. VW does has good quality, if not particularly good value. I would personally pick Ford Europe as offering a better all round range than either of the above makes, but that marque only sold the same number of cars as Opel - just beating it to 4th spot.

In summary: GM Europe needs to work hard is it hopes to claw back lost ground on the sales front.

Renault, Peugeot & Citroen Sales France: 1980-2010

Below is a list showing how the big three brands have fared over the last three decades in the French car market. Renault has been the number one brand all that time, but is now under pressure to keep it that way. All the figures are in thousands, so you need to add three zeros. The first column is the year, 2nd - Renault's total French sales and market share, 3rd - the same but for Peugeot, 4th - again for Citroen:

Year / - Renault - / - Peugeot - / - Citroen -
1980 / 759 40.5% / 293 15.7% / 271 14.5%
1985 / 508 28.7% / 364 20.6% / 227 12.8%
1990 / 639 27.7% / 498 21.6% / 267 11.6%
1995 / 564 29.2% / 342 17.7% / 241 12.5%
2000 / 602 28.2% / 398 18.6% / 262 12.3%
2005 / 524 25.4% / 362 17.5% / 271 13.1%
2010 / 498 22.1% / 401 17.8% / 328 14.6%

Back in 1980, a combined Peugeot & Citroen (PSA) was well short of Renault. However, Renault has steadily declined whilst both PSA brands have increased. Of course, Renault's 1980 market share was never going to be sustained and the brand is now more focused on making profit than simply moving metal.