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OREANDA-NEWS. Russian car market, which in February took the fourth place among the countries of Europe, at the end of last month once again dropped to the fifth place of the European Championship.

According to data of the agency "AUTOSTAT", received in the national associations of European car manufacturers, the leader by car sales in March was the UK, where it was sold 518,707 vehicles (+ 5.3%). As it was noted by the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and dealers (SMMT), it is an absolute record in the history of the British car market and it is only the third case, when monthly auto sales surpassed half a million mark. Thus, the second place went to Germany with 322 913 sold vehicles, which corresponds to the level of 2015. As it was noted in the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA), the stabilization of sales due to the fact that this year Easter holidays fell in March, as they were last year in April. The third result was shown by France - 211 264 sold cars (+ 7.5%). Next Italy comes, whose dealers have sold 190381 cars (+ 17.4%). As it was noted in the Italian Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ANFIA), this is the best figure for March since 2010, when the program of scrappage bonuses was operated, therewith the double-digit sales growth was recorded the third consecutive month. If, however, during the considering of the European automotive market, we take into account Russia, our country is back on the fifth line of European rankings. According to preliminary estimates of "AUTOSTAT" agency, passenger car sales in the last month were about 116 thousand units (excluding LCV). We also add that due to the Easter holidays in March, the Spanish car market showed a slight decline - by 0.7% to 111512 cars.