ACEA says European market has declined for twelfth consecutive month. - The European Automobile Manufacturers Assocation (ACEA) has announced that with 1,251,862 units in April, car registrations declined by 12.3%. This is the twelfth month in a row that the level has fallen. ACEA stressed that it is better than the 18% fall recorded in February or the fall of 27% last January but not as good as the 9% fall last March. Four months into the year, new car registrations in Europe dropped by 16%. Germany and Austria stood out as the only expanding markets (19.4% and 12.8% last month). France and Italy have worse results (-7.1% and -7.5% respectively) but better than those in the United Kingdom (-24%) and especially Spain (-46%). Iceland is beating all the records with -88%. Among manufactuers, only the Korean company Hyundai (+9.7%) and Fiat from Italy (+4.7%) are still afloat. All the others are experiencing falls: Volkswagen experienced a moderate fall (-4.2%) as well as Ford (-6.3%). Renault experiences the sharpest fall (-14%), PSA (-14.7%) and Toyota (-22.4%) but the luxury brands have suffered worse with -27% for Mercedes and -31.2% for BMW. (I.L./trans/rh)