European new car market contracts by 10.3 per cent in Nov

European car sales fell for the 14th consecutive month in November, plunging 10.3 per cent compared with the same month last year, data released Friday showed. The Brussels-based European Automobile Manaufacturers' Association said total new car registrations in the European Union dropped to 926,486 following hefty falls across the eurozone's biggest auto markets amid recession, fiscal austerity and record high unemployment. 'The situation in Western Europe remains tense,' the German automobile association VDA said last week releasing its latest projections. 'In the last month there has been no improvement in sight on the Western European car market,' the VDA said. Sales in Italy and Spain, which have been badly hit by the eurozone debt crisis, plummeted by more than 20 per cent. France's new car market contracted by 19.2 per cent, the figures showed. The region's biggest car market, Germany saw registrations drop 3.5 per cent last month, the ACEA said. The falls were even more dramatic in other parts of the region. In cash-strapped Greece sales tumbled 47.2 per cent and by 25.4 per cent in Portugal. But the data helped to underline the economic turnaround underway in Ireland where new car sales gained 13.5 per cent. The picture was also somewhat brighter outside the embattled eurozone with Britain posting an 11.3-per-cent jump. Still, new car sales in the first 11 months of 2012 were down 7.6 per cent compared with the same period last year, the ACEA said.