Sweden Top 4 Brands : 1950-59

1959 Volvo Amazon. A nice looking car for its day

Thanks to the good folk of BilSweden, we can have an insight into the Swedish car market back in the 1950s. Sweden didn't have a dominant local brand such as VW in Germany and Fiat in Italy. Therefore, the changes in positions in the top 4 are greater, especially that coveted top spot.

Ford (Germany and UK combined) started out top but fell away slightly as the decade proceded. Ford at the beginning of the 50's were mainly from England, with Germany, France and the USA following. By 1959, Germany had just passed England as the largest source of cars, with the US adding some units.

Opel/Vauxhall combined (GM Europe) did well although both brands were selling separately there during those years. That was not uncommon back then, as the cars were different. Vauxhall sales were consistently about a tenth of Opel sales through the 60s. I haven't included GM US sales in the OpV figure, and GM cars from across the Atlantic were very popular in Sweden as well.

VW was up and down, even missing out for two years. Local marque Volvo strengthened as time passed and was well ensconced at the top by 1959. The only other make to get into the top 4 was BMC (Austin 2/1 in sales over Morris).

Year	1st		2nd		3rd		4th
1950	Ford	10,101	VW	8,252	Volvo	7,419	Opel-V	5,128
1951	Volvo	9,288	VW	7,333	Ford	7,021	Opel-V	5,358
1952	Ford	7,169	Volvo	7,132	VW	5,964	Opel-V	5,020
1953	Volvo	14,741	Ford	9,059	Opel-V	8,235	BMC	7,889
1954	Volvo	21,186	Ford	19,088	Opel-V	13,748	BMC	13,048
1955	VW	25,876	Volvo	25,017	Opel-V	17,198	Ford	16,341
1956	Volvo	26,268	VW	23,406	Opel-V	21,691	Ford	15,667
1957	Opel-V	30,915	Volvo	27,911	VW	27,257	Ford	16,767
1958	Volvo	31,151	Opel-V	27,856	VW	24,827	Ford	16,879
1959	Volvo	39,029	VW	31,147	Opel-V	29,426	Ford	18,100

For others in the series, please click on the years: 2010-19. 2000-09, 1990-99,
1980-89, 1970-79, and 1960-69.

Italy Top 4 Brands : 1990-99

Opel Corsa a strong seller in Italy

Moving into the 1990s with a new data supplier, we see that Fiat is alone as the only local brand now in the top 4. The big winner was GM's Opel brand as it came from nowhere to be the second largest brand. Ford and VW had their moments but GM finished ahead for the decade.

The extreme right column shows the top 4 market share and one has to say the trend in other places held true here. The top brands have been unable to hold their share as import duties were abolished within Europe and makes from Asia entered the picture.

The Ford Fiesta likewise

Fiat slipped away noticeably at the end, but still had a good lead over everyone else. The chart below shows sales in thousands with market share under the '%' symbol.

	Yr	1st	Sales	%	2nd	Sales	%	3rd	Sales	%	4th	Sales	%	%
	1990	Fiat	835	36	VW	188	8	Ford	179	8	Ren	152	7	59
	1991	Fiat	713	32	Ford	253	11	VW	199	9	Ren	181	8	60
	1992	Fiat	754	32	Ford	256	11	VW	252	11	Ren	180	8	61
	1993	Fiat	544	32	Ford	174	10	VW	139	8	Ren	123	7	58
	1994	Fiat	578	34	Ford	156	9	GM	126	8	Ren	118	7	58
	1995	Fiat	569	33	Ford	149	9	GM	134	8	VW	130	7	57
	1996	Fiat	565	33	Ford	157	9	GM	136	8	VW	125	7	57
	1997	Fiat	793	33	Ford	222	9	GM	203	8	Ren	167	7	58
	1998	Fiat	681	29	GM	211	9	Ford	186	8	Ren	179	8	53
	1999	Fiat	619	27	GM	204	9	VW	185	8	Ren	181	8	51

For other years, simply click on the year: 1960-69, 1970-79, 1980-89,
and 2000-2013.

GM Ellesmere Port, UK 50 Years

Canal boats passed through this port many years ago and it now houses the National Waterways Museum with the largest collection of canal boats in the world. I have a connection to the town of Ellesmere Port I won't bore you with here, but it caught my eye when I found out that the GM car plant located there is 50 years old. I wrote about the plant back in 2005, found by clicking here.

The plant is now fifty years old and celebrated as they do with the original Viva model and the current Astra. It was built on a disused WWII airfield to supply other UK factories with subassemblies and engines. However, the Viva HA model started to be made there in 1964. 

By 1975 all Chevettes were manufactured at Ellesmere Port and in 1980 the first Opel badged cars were produced - to go to Germany. In 1981 the Astra model was introduced. In 2005, EP passed the 4,000,000 mark for cars produced.

In recent times GM has been trying to refine its European operations to make them profitable and that meant fewer factories. Ellesmere Port was a possible casualty but it has been given the green light for the 2015 Astra to be made there along with the Gliwice plant in Poland. They will be the only factories making that model.

I have put together a series of lists below, in ten year increments of EP production numbers. Ones that are estimates are rounded. As to why manufacturers do not put this sort of thing out in the public domain I do not know. Anyway, it is very close to exact but has various sources and is not absolute in accuracy. It could depend whether the source included the van variant of the car, or just counted passenger cars.

			64-73			74-83			84-93
		64	7,776		74	94,618		84	34,403
		65	39,312		75	90,191		85	50,592
		66	62,848		76	101,000		86	74,082
		67	132,240		77	93,237		87	89,539
		68	151,612		78	84,041		88	89,425
		69	110,882		79	58,765		89	87,266
		70	115,561		80	55,002		90	105,024
		71	122,958		81	44,204		91	90,233
		72	127,201		82	51,379		92	117,511
		73	93,417		83	49,250		93	111,047
		Av	96381		Av	72169		Av	84912
			94-03			04-13
		94	102,527		04	125,981
		95	108,152		05	189,196
		96	112,424		06	143,654
		97	102,020		07	115,476
		98	98,197		08	102,481
		99	154,741		09	76,771
		00	154,121		10	102,665
		01	132,297		11	137,971
		02	48,332		12	90,187
		03	30,286		13	73,502
		Av	104310		Av	115788