EEC Sales By Brand : 1967-69

The Fiat 125

Before the days of the Internet, information was put on paper and often impossible to be accessed by everyday people. The information superhighway offers so much potential today for the exchange of information. The negative is that some don't want us to have it and for a variety of reasons.

It may have some commercial value. Perhaps there is concern that the information will be interpreted in a way not wanted by some. For others knowledge isn't for general circulation. I have found of late data sources being shut to the general public after years of them allowed viewing. A disappointing trend.

I for one feel unless reasonable harm is done financially, then the more information that is shared the better. This blog is dedicated to that ideal and where possible such sharing should be without charge or financial gain. The information below is of car sales back in the late 1960's for what was then the EEC. The nations involved were Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Sales for those nations combined is shown below.

Rk	Company	1967	%	1968	%	+/-	1969	%	+/-
1	Fiat Group	1,133,878	26.2%	1,137,492	25.5%	0%	1,162,155	22.9%	2%
2	VW Group	494,077	11.4%	539,368	12.1%	9%	789,316	15.5%	46%
3	Renault	500,869	11.6%	491,851	11.0%	-2%	581,740	11.5%	18%
4	GM	397,625	9.2%	436,002	9.8%	10%	542,371	10.7%	24%
5	Ford	340,568	7.9%	324,118	7.3%	-5%	492,466	9.7%	52%
6	Citroën	369,401	8.5%	316,862	7.1%	-14%	323,532	6.4%	2%
7	Peugeot	271,279	6.3%	267,148	6.0%	-2%	318,196	6.3%	19%
8	Chrysler	223,003	5.2%	268,675	6.0%	20%	285,367	5.6%	6%
9	Mercedes	118,840	2.7%	139,169	3.1%	17%	154,707	3.0%	11%
10	BLMC/Inn	82,088	1.9%	122,695	2.7%	49%	121,822	2.4%	-1%
11	BMW/Glas	85,148	2.0%	92,509	2.1%	9%	101,281	2.0%	9%
12	Alfa Romeo	62,938	1.5%	82,395	1.8%	31%	90,578	1.8%	10%
13	DAF	38,962	0.9%	49,839	1.1%	28%	55,401	1.1%	11%
14	Volvo	14,104	0.3%	15,384	0.3%	9%	17,549	0.3%	14%
15	Toyota	4,750	0.1%	8,060	0.2%	70%	11,005	0.2%	37%
16	Škoda	6,080	0.1%	8,849	0.2%	46%	8,508	0.2%	-4%
17	Honda	3,453	0.1%	11,515	0.3%	233%	8,083	0.2%	-30%
18	Porsche	4,022	0.1%	4,837	0.1%	20%	5,376	0.1%	11%
19	Datsun	804	0.0%	2,532	0.1%	215%	4,224	0.1%	67%
20	Mazda			844	0.0%		2,871	0.1%	240%
21	Moskvitch	2,580	0.1%	2,419	0.1%	-6%	1,955	0.0%	-19%
22	Saab	735	0.0%	846	0.0%	15%	1,271	0.0%	50%
23	NSU	86,611	2.0%	105,992	2.4%	22%	see VW
24	Other	533		549			479
	Total	4,329,064		4,465,752		3%	5,080,253		14%

Data source: L'Argus.

Fiat had over a quarter of the market in 1967 but as sales climbed, it didn't grow as fast. The VW Group did better and was aided by the take over of NSU. Further down British Leyland (it's name kept changing) was not part of the Union (thanks to Charles), so many of its sales were cars made in Italy by Innocenti.

Chrysler was basically Simca cars and was quite successful back then. DAF were a Dutch car maker which made popular cars in the 1960's. It was acquired by Volvo in 1975 and the brand was retired. The Japanese makes were trying to break in but were still quite limited in volume.

Summary: The EEC has grown a lot since, but even back then it was a large car market. Fiat was the big European brand with some fine cars. Peugeot and Citroën were still separate companies and Asian brands were barely making their presence felt. Things are always changing.

The DAF 33