General Motors Corp.'s (GM) troubled European division Thursday posted a 13% fall year-on-year in new-car registrations in April, even as scrapping incentives sparked a 19% rise in Germany, Europe's largest auto market.

New-car registrations in Europe last month fell 12% on the year to 1.25 million vehicles, marking the 12th consecutive month of declining demand, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA, said Thursday, despite successful scrapping initiatives in several major markets cushioning the fall.

Across the region, April counted on average one less working day compared with the same period a year ago.

"Four months into 2009, the market decrease amounts to 15.9%," ACEA said in a statement.

GM Europe, whose core Opel brand is based in Germany, reported 117,921 registrations last month.

Italian automaker Fiat Spa (F.MI), whose Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne is currently pushing to forge an alliance comprising Fiat's auto unit, GM's European and Latin American operations and Chrysler LLC, was the biggest beneficiary last month from scrapping incentives and a broader trend toward smaller cars.

Fiat's European new-car registrations climbed 4.7% on the year in April to 121,671 vehicles when almost all other major automakers saw demand shrink.

Fiat fared significantly better than GM's European Opel/Vauxhall and Saab brands. Opel/Vauxhall saw sales decline 13% to 98,469 and Saab suffered a 60% drop to 2,482.

Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE), Europe's largest automaker by sales, saw registrations fall 4.2% on the year in April to 284,607 cars, with its core VW brand achieving an almost flat result year-on-year with a 0.2% decrease to 153,804 cars.

Volkswagen's Czech Skoda brand even eked out a 0.4% rise in new-car registrations to 46,353 vehicles last month.

Ford Motor Co.'s (F) European division fared better than the overall market last month with a 6.3% decline year-on-year to 125,033 new-car registrations.

Ford's core brand posted a 1.5% decrease last month to 110,002 registrations in Europe, while the Swedish Volvo brand recorded a 31% fall on the year to 15,031 vehicles.

French automakers Renault SA (RNO.FR) and PSA Peugeot-Citroen (12150.FR) performed roughly in line with the overall market as new-car registrations were down 14% to 110,148 cars and 15% to 156,726 cars, respectively.

Demand for luxury cars remained depressed as the scrapping incentives in various European countries triggered demand mainly for small cars rather than bigger, premium vehicles.

BMW AG (BMW.XE), the world's best-selling premium automaker, reported 55,633 vehicle registrations in Europe, down 31% on the year. Daimler AG (DAI) posted 26% sales drop to 60,214 new-car registrations as consumers shied away from big-ticket purchases amid recession.

Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) reported a 22% fall year-on-year in April to 57,774 cars, adding to the Japanese auto giant's woes in the contracting U.S. market. The company's Lexus premium brand saw demand deteriorate 43% last month to 1,497 registrations.

 
   Web site: www.acea.be 
 
   -By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 512; christoph.rauwald@dowjones.com 
   (Allison Connolly contributed to this report.)