European new car sales jumped 14% in February, industry data showed today, helped by an extra selling day.
The figures show that even Volkswagen's core brand swung back to growth despite its diesel emissions scandal.
But the 4.4% increase at Volkswagen brand was dwarfed by double-digit gains at all other major carmakers, including Ford, Peugeot and Opel/Vauxhall which surged 19%, 14.2% and 18.7% respectively.
This is according to figures from the European auto industry association ACEA.
Registrations rose to 1,092,825 million cars from 958,239 a year earlier, data for the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) showed, marking the 30th month of growth of a row.
Two-month registrations were up 10% to 2,187 million vehicles, according to ACEA.
Luxury nameplates BMW, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and VW's Audi fared equally well, posting growth of 14.7%, 22.4% and 17.1% respectively.
Momentum was evenly spread across the 28-nation EU, with Greece and the Netherlands being the only countries that incurred a sales decline while data for Malta was unavailable.
Analysts said that Europe is still in a recovery phase, citing improving economic growth, pent-up demand in southern European economies and strong company car demand.
