(October 10, 2012) WOLFSBURG, Germany – Volkswagen set a new passenger car sales record for the first three quarters of 2012 delivering over four million vehicles. From January to September, Europe’s largest automaker handed over 4.21 million vehicles to customers. The brand delivered 492,500 vehicles in  September.

“Volkswagen passenger cars enjoyed further strong growth in September, above all outside Europe. Given the continued difficult conditions on automobile markets in Western Europe we remain very vigilant, but we are nevertheless optimistic as regards the Volkswagen pPassenger cars brand, because we are launching our most important vehicle, the new Golf, over the coming weeks. We are very satisfied with over 15,000 advance orders placed so far,” said Christian Klingler, board member for sales and marketing for the Volkswagen Group.

The Volkswagen passenger cars brand performed very well on the American continent in the period to September, increasing deliveries in the North America region by 26.1 percent to 456,500 (362,000) units. Growth was especially strong in the United States, where customers took possession of 323,100, up 37.2 percent from September 2011.