!NEW! Opel Germany Reports Best First Quarter in Five Years

• Passenger car market share grew to 7.5 percent from January to March
• Opel Astra success story: Already more than 140,000 orders in Europe

Opel Astra success story: Already more than 140,000 orders in Europe.

Thanks to its successful model offensive, Opel has started this year on its domestic German market stronger than in the last five years. In the first quarter, the Rüsselsheim automaker increased passenger car sales by around 7,500 units or 14.5 percent to 59,000 cars. So in the first three months of the year, Opel’s growth was more than three times that of the overall German passenger car market, which only reached a plus of 4.5 percent. Opel’s market share increased between January and March by about 0.7 percentage points to around 7.5 percent. With this, Opel recorded the best first quarter since 2011 both in terms of market share and volume.

Following strong growth in January and February, Opel continued its upward trend in March and increased both sales and market share. Sales volume last month grew by around 1.3 percent to about 23,400 units, while the overall German passenger car market was practically stagnant with a total increase of just 41 units.

The strong start to the year was again mainly due to the high demand for Europe’s “Car of the Year 2016”, the new Opel Astra. Over 7,200 units of the current generation of the five-door model were sold in the first quarter – a plus of more than 80 percent compared to sales of the predecessor model during the same period last year.

The station wagon variant, the Opel Astra Sports Tourer, makes its premiere at German dealerships on Saturday, April 9. 

More than 140,000 orders have already been received in Europe for the new Opel/Vauxhall Astra.

Another success story was Opel’s flexibility champion Meriva, which recorded strong growth of nearly 19 percent. With more than 4,000 units sold, it was number one in the MPV B segment, just like the Opel Mokka in the SUV B segment. Sales of the Opel Zafira Tourer family van grew by an impressive 16 percent