European new car market analysis for August shows that Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain and Spain all sold more cars in August 2009 than they did in the same month last year, according to the latest figures.

Of those five markets, Spain is the last to eventually demonstrate a month of growth in 2009, with a marginal 0.7% improvement over August 2008.

“We are not by any means seeing a complete market recovery, but with the five biggest markets now all heading in the right direction, we can certainly feel very encouraged”, says David Di Girolamo, head of Jato Dynamics.

“The holiday period during August always sees lower volumes sold, but at least the August figures continue the European trend towards improved sales, and although the overall year-to-date figure remains down by 7.3%, we have seen a 1.2% improvement over July.”

The Volkswagen Golf remains Europe’s best-selling car, now celebrating its fifth consecutive month at the top of the charts, up 17.3% YTD and 39.5% in August.