Sales of new cars in Europe fell 9% in March on a 12-month basis, a smaller than expected decline due to government subsidies to encourage buying, industry association ACEA said.
'Declining for the eleventh consecutive month, passenger car registrations in Europe fell by 9% in March,' the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said.
In the first quarter, sales were down by 17.2% compared with the same quarter last year.
In March, sales rose 39.9% year-on-year in Germany because of a government scheme to subsidise consumers who trade in their old cars for a new model.
Similar incentives have been put in place in France and Italy, where sales also rose, but by a smaller amount.
Irish car registrations in March were down 64% on the same month last year, according to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. A mere 7,811 cars were registered last month, compared to 21,590 in the same 31-day period in 2008.
Sales in Britain and Spain also fell sharply, down 30.5% and 38.7% respectively.
The car industry is one of the largest and worst-hit industrial sectors in Europe, where the recession resulted in the weakest sales in 15 years in 2008, with new car registrations plunging 8%.
Sales fell by 18.3% in February and 27% in January. The figures cover 28 European markets, including all members of the European Union except Cyprus and Malta, and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
Among the manufacturers, the data showed some doing much better than others. Italian group Fiat, currently in talks to take a stake in struggling US giant Chrysler, enjoyed a bounce of 14.3% in sales in March owing to demand for its Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo models.
Volkswagen remains the number one seller in Europe, but its sales of VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda models fell 0.3% in the month.
Sales of luxury German models were down, with BMW off 20.8% and Daimler, which owns Mercedes and the city car Smart brand, down 14.6%.
French manufacturers Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Japanese rival Toyota and US maker Ford all experienced falls more or less in line with the overall market. Sales by US-based General Motors, propped up by the US government and in danger of bankruptcy, dropped 20%.
A total of 1,506,249 new cars were registered in March, the figures reveal.
