European sales in 2012 expected to experience steepest fall since 1993. - According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), new car registrations are expected to decrease by between 8-10% compared to 2011. In terms of volume, this will see 12 million units sold on the market. The European market for sales of new vehicles is therefore expected to experience its sharpest fall in 2012 since 1993, a particularly gloomy year where sales declined by 17%. This forecast follows September's particularly poor forecast. Not only has the European market experienced its twelfth month of consecutive decline but the fall (-10.8%, to 1.1 million vehicles) is the steepest in two years. In October 2010, the market massively declined by 16.6%. All the different manufacturers saw their sales fall, with the exception of just a few: BMW (+4.4%), Hyundai (+3.9%), Kia (+3.4%) and Toyota (+0.8%) and to a lesser extent, Jaguar Land Rover and Honda. Even the market leader, Volkswagen, has seen its brand sales fall by 13.8% to 131 000 units. The most affected manufacturers include General Motors (-16.2%), Ford (-14.9%), Fiat (-8.5%), Nissan (-14.1%) but also Renault, which saw its brand sales fall by 32.5%. On the European market, sales are continuing to collapse in some countries. Unsurprisingly, Greece is feeling the full force of this phenomenon (-42.5% since the beginning of the year). Portugal and Italy have also been severely affected (-20.5%) and, to a lesser extent, France, with a fall of 18%. More worrying, Germany is also slowing down, with a fall of 10.9% in September, a drop for the third month in a row. Although the market is moving towards its fifth year of decline, the problem of overcapacity is particularly acute and European factories are currently experiencing 40% overcapacity. (IL/trans/fl)