The number of classic cars in Germany grew again last year. 343,958 cars with H license plates were registered by January 1, 2016, an increase of around 10.7 percent compared to the previous year.
Germans buy German classic cars
The fact that Germans prefer to buy their own vehicles is shown by the proportion of German cars among classic cars. As in 2015, the Daimler brand with 83,304 units and Volkswagen with 64,677 units occupy the top two places by a large margin.
The third to sixth places are also occupied by the German brands Porsche, Ford, Opel and BMW. The number of historic BMWs has almost doubled. However, two Italian brands, Fiat and Alfa Romeo, have also made it into the top 10 most popular brands and the Swiss brand GM and the British Triumph are also popular with German classic car fans.
The Beetle remains the most popular model
The VW Beetle continues to lead the ranking of the most popular models. With 32,750 vehicles, the best-selling car of the post-war period still accounts for almost 1/10 of all classic cars in Germany.
With 17,534 vehicles, the Mercedes-Benz Type W 123 is once again clearly in second place, followed by the Type SL R 107, which maintained its position as the third most popular classic car in Germany with 11,325 units.
However, not all vehicles that are now more than 30 years old can actually be considered classic cars. While around 67 percent of all VW Beetles have an H license plate, only 27.6 percent of VW Golfs do, and the proportion of historic Opel vehicles with an H license plate is only 36.3 percent for the Opel Kadett and 38.1 percent for the Rekord 924/944.
