Turkey November sales: VW, Renault, Mercedes vans units report strong gains

The light commercial vehicle arms of Renault, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz increased November sales in Turkey by triple- or double-digit percentages. Those gains, however, couldn't stop the overall market from declining by 31 percent.

Renault's LCV unit increased sales by 194 percent in November. VW's vans division was up 98 percent because of strong demand for the Caddy, which accounted for 52 percent of the unit's volume last month. Mercedes's van business was up 69 percent last month.

Nissan was the only car brand to report a gain in November, up 81 percent.

Fiat's commercial vehicles unit, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Citroen, Opel, BMW and Peugeot had sales declines but beat the market, according to data from market researcher JATO Dynamics.

Fiat's LVC arm was helped by demand for the Doblo, which was the market's No. 4-seller in November.

One surprise was that the Fiat Egea lost its place at the top of the monthly sales chart in November, dropping to third behind the Renault Clio and Toyota Corolla.

The Egea, however, is at no risk of being beating by its rivals for the full year because its 11-month sales put it 29,578 units ahead of its closest competitor, the Corolla (66,282 vs. 36,704).

Rounding out the top five were Renault Clio (32,368) which for the fourth month in a row remained ahead of the Ford Transit Courier/Tourneo Courier (26,380), and the Renault Megane (25,233).

The Dolbo passed the Honda Civic to move into sixth place overall in October and continued to keep its lead after 11 months.