GM might be having serious issues here and there but in Europe, things are starting to look promising to say the least. GM’s subsidiary Opel, not only swerved pass Renault to take the second place overall in the European market for 2006 –despite a 2,3% drop in sales, but its Astra model also managed to knock VW’s Golf off the top spot and become Europe’s best seller for 2006. While rival VW must be pleased not only for maintaining first place but also for broadening the difference with the competition, I’m sure that they are quite unhappy with the fact that the Golf slipped from 1st place to 4th. On the contrary, Renault must feel very proud for its new Clio hatch (+28,0%) but not for its overall performance as sales dropped by 12,6%.
Fiat on its behalf recorded the largest increase in sales from the top 10 group with an 18.7% rise in sales, mainly due to its well-received Grande Punto hatch, which saw its sales double in 2006.
Finally, even though Toyota managed to rank 9th overall, there’s not one Asian model in Europe’s Top 10 best sellers list. In my opinion that won’t happen neither in 2007, but don’t be surprised if Toyota surpasses Citroen or Fiat (though less probable due to the introduction of the Bravo) at the end of the year.Via: Jato Dynamics
Technorati:business+news, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007
Thanks to a watchful reader, the guys over at Jalopnik managed to retrieve some cold hard evidence that the recently facelifted Opel Astra GTC is running around here at the States. Heading to the U.S. as a Saturn this fall, the Golf sized euro hatch is wrapping up its last minute road tests in what appeared to be Leadville, Colorado. As a personal fan of dozens of European cars, I can’t wait to see and drive this thing. With rumors of Alfa Romeo coming to the states, I hope to one-day see a 
