Sweden Top 4 Brands : 1980-89

1982 Volvo 345. The 300 series ran from 1976-91

While Volvo remained the most popular choice for Swedish car buyers in the 1980's, Saab was starting to struggle holding second place. Ford came back with a vengeance, and Opel remained a strong seller. VW fell from grace in this period.

The low point of this period was 1981 when there were 188,500 sales for the total market. It then peaked in 1988 with 344,000 sales. Sweden had a financial boom during this time, causing the sales spike. A economic meltdown in the 1990's caused a slump in car sales, which you will see in the 1990's top 4 chart.

One point of note is the share the top 4 held. The extreme right column shows a drop for these to 47% by the decade's end. All of the top 4 had lost share. Below sales are in thousands with a decimal place for hundreds.

Yr	1st	Sales	%	2nd	Sales	%	3rd	Sales	%	4th	Sales	%	%
1980	Vol	50.5	26	Saab	27.6	14	VW	18.7	10	Opel	17.5	9	59
1981	Vol	49.8	26	Saab	26.7	14	Ford	21.1	11	VW	20.0	11	62
1982	Vol	57.5	26	Saab	30.6	14	Ford	22.4	10	Opel	22.2	10	61
1983	Vol	62.0	29	Saab	29.3	13	Ford	21.6	10	Opel	20.8	10	62
1984	Vol	62.5	27	Saab	29.6	13	Ford	25.5	11	Opel	22.0	10	60
1985	Vol	71.1	27	Ford	28.6	11	Saab	27.4	10	Opel	26.8	10	59
1986	Vol	64.6	24	Ford	29.9	11	Saab	29.6	11	Opel	24.3	9	55
1987	Vol	72.5	23	Ford	34.3	11	Opel	31.1	10	Saab	30.2	10	53
1988	Vol	74.6	22	Ford	35.9	10	Opel	28.9	8	Saab	27.1	8	48
1989	Vol	66.6	22	Ford	28.6	9	Saab	25.8	8	Opel	24.8	8	47

1998 Opel Kadet

Thanks to BilSweden for the data.

For others in the series, please click on the years: 2000-13, 1990-99, 1970-79,
1960-69, and 1950-59.