German car sales crash by one third after subsidies end

Subject: txt mny auto othr trade othr -
Berlin - New car registrations in Germany crashed by one third in May in annual terms, data Thursday showed. The tally of 249,700 new cars was 35 per cent below new-car sales a year ago, the federal vehicle licensing office in the city of Flensburg said. Germany offered buyers government subsidies last year. This year the May tally was 3,000 less than an earlier estimate by Germany's motor manufacturers' association VDA.

[Perspective: Germany is Europe's largest economy. CA is currently buying approx. 2M new cars a year, and has gone as high as 17M in 2004 (nearly 10% of the global new car market).]

READ MORE