Goverment policy temporarily boosts German car sales to a record level

The business situation in the German automobile market has changed dramatically in recent months. After nine weak years of new car sales between 2000 and 2008, a major turnaround began at the beginning of 2009. The government's scrapping bonus for cars nine years and older touched of a rapid increase in new car registrations. This demand increase is concentrated primarily on smaller vehicles, however, so that German brands have only been profiting disproportionately from the increase in registrations.