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The French car market has lost a little of its 'va-va-voom' over 2013, having sold just 1.79m vehicles.In an emissions-conscious world, nearly 2 million new cars may sound a lot, but these are actually the worst sales figures France has seen for 15 years.

An overall drop of 5 per cent was recorded over 2013 according to the CCFA manufacturers association. A 4.4 per cent fall was experienced in the light utility vehicles sector.

Flavien Neuvy, a market analyst of Cetelem credit company, said, "The 2013 vintage is to be forgotten."

After poor sales in 2012, the early part of 2013 saw the worst performance, followed by a slight recovery in the last quarter. Possibly as a pre-emptive move against a sale tax increase on January 1st, French consumers pushed December sales up by 9.4 per cent.

But at least France’s car makers can feel secure in the fact that people are buying French: 53 per cent of cars sold were built by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault.

Renault enjoyed a tiny rise of 0.8 per cent, while PSA Peugeot Citroen saw sales fall by 7.7 per cent.

Despite French cars doing poorly in some engine failure surveys, citizens of the République appear to view French cars as good value, even if they may demand a little too much attention from their car breakdown cover providers.

Non-French carmakers fared worse, with VW sales dropping by 8.1 per cent, and GM and Ford losing 15.8 per cent and 17.3 per cent respectively over the year. However, perennial favourite Toyota managed a 5.5 per cent increase, while Fiat saw sales rise by 2.4 per cent.

France's poor car sales figures do not compare well to recession-hit Spain, where sales actually rose by 3.3 per cent. Italy however experienced similarly low sales volumes, with a year-on-year drop off of 7.1 per cent.