Fiesta celebration leads to drop down sale of cars in German market

German new car registrations fell by 0.5 per cent to around 345,500 in March, a person familiar with the numbers told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that order levels were, however, better than those figures showed.

The source said the drop - which comes after new car registrations rose by almost 3 per cent in February - was probably due to several thousand fewer cars being sold due to carnival celebrations at the beginning of the month.

The source said new car registrations had risen by 0.2 per cent to 880,000 during the first quarter. Official registrations data from Germany's car authority KBA are due to be released on Wednesday.