Along with Audi, both those makers have seen their market share rise while those of Peugeot-Citroen, Volkswagen, Ford and Opel have lost share.
Mercedes-Benz reshaped its attractiveness in the compact hatch segment with the new generation A-Class (above), B-Class and the more recent CLA 4-door coupe, while BMW's 1 Series and Audi's A3 have also helped to grow those brands into what was traditionally the preserve of the mass-market providers.
Against an industry-wide drop of 5 percent in sales across Europe so far this year, Peugeot-Citroen is down 12 percent, Ford has dropped 7 percent, VW by 8 percent, and Fiat is down by 9 percent. In contrast, Mercedes is up 6 percent, and BMW increased by 9 percent.
Mercedes-Benz has increased its number of models by four to 23 in the last six years and will add another 13 in the next eight years. BMW has increased its models range from 14 in 2007 to 21 today, while Audi has doubled its number of models to 46 including variants in the same period.
