Germany continued its post-VAT depression success, recording the largest growth of the “big five” markets with a 24.8 per cent increase, according to the latest figures from Acea.

The French market was also up for a second month in a row, increasing by 2.4 per cent but Spanish sales stagnated, recording an increase of 0.7 per cent year-on-year.

It was bad news for the other major markets - Italy ended the month down 3.9 percent but it was the UK that produced the worst monthly sales as volumes slumped 5.4 per cent. Registrations across Europe as a whole, including the new member states, rose 8.7 per cent compared to February of last year. VW Group maintained its position as Europe's bestselling carmaker, retailing 479,282 units. The PSA Group was second with 337,628 units. Despite recording a 1.1 per cent decline in sales, Ford was placed third with 255,002 units. Nissan produced the greatest sales improvement of any carmaker for the second month in a row as volumes soared by 54.9 per cent. Chrysler propped up the bottom of the registrations chart, selling just 17,418 units in February.