In 2016, the best-selling vehicle in Sweden was not the Volvo V70, not the Volvo XC60, not the Volvo S60. Not any Volvo. The Volkswagen Golf took the crown, the first time a non-Volvo vehicle has topped Sweden’s auto-sales charts since 1962.
According to BBC, 5.9 percent of new cars bought in Sweden during the past year?a total of 22,082 units?were Golfs. The Volvo V70, V90, and S90, which were grouped together as one, tallied a total share of 5.7 percent. Coincidentally, the last time Sweden’s best-selling vehicle wasn?t a Volvo was when the VW Beetle did it in 1962. The good news from Sweden doesn’t quite make for a shining silver lining to 2016 for TDI-embattled Volkswagen, but we have no doubt the German company will take any victory it can get at this point.
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This comes during a booming year for auto sales in Sweden, which is Volvo’s second-biggest market after China. New-car registrations rose by 372,000, or about 8 percent over 2015. Any Swedes worried that the Golf landing in the top spot might signal some major shift should know that Volvos still outnumber any other automaker’s cars on the country’s roads, with a 21.5 percent share compared with Volkswagen’s 15.7 percent presence. And, according to Motoring Research, Volvo ve...