With consumers jittery and credit hard to come by, carmakers saw the sharpest fall in sales since 1999 in November, before ACEA's data included figures from the new EU member states.

The slump was made even worse by the fact that there were on average two fewer working days for selling cars in November compared to the same month in 2007.

"New passenger car registrations in Europe fell by 25.8 percent in November compared to the same month of last year, declining for the seventh month in a row, mirroring the financial and economic crises," ACEA said in a statement.

(AFP/Expatica)