Car sales throughout Europe grew 7% year-on-year in October 2014 to 1,123,618 vehicles, according to European information provider JATO Dynamics.

New car sale growth was widespread throughout Europe, with 24 out of 29 countries seeing improving year-on-year car sales. Of the so called ‘Big Five’ European economies, only French sales fell year-on-year, going from 166,495 in October 2013 to 160,149 in October 2014.

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For the rest, Spanish sales jumped 31.1% year-on-year to 79,884, Italian sales grew 9.6% to 123,220, while British and German sales improved14.2% to 179,714 and 3.7% to 275,320, respectively.

Going by brand, 19 of the top 20 brands recorded year-on-year growth in October, with just Toyota recording less cars sold in October 2014 than the equivalent month 2013 (down 1.7%).

With sales up 5.9% year-on-year, Volkswagen (VW) extended its lead at the top of the sales chart, as second placed Ford grew just 3.8% in the same period. VW sold 142,963 in October 2014, while Ford sold 79,876.

Renault closed the gap on Ford to just over 1,000 cars, thanks to a 6.3% growth in sales in October 2014, compared to the same month in 2013.

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Fourth placed Opel/Vauxhall recorded the strong year-on-year growth in October, up 11.8% to 70,350, while just 1.1% growth from Citroen to 54,202 meant that Skoda – which saw sales increase 6.0% year-on-year to 51,508 – closed the gap on the ninth biggest car brand in Europe by sales volume.

Year-to-date, car sales were up 5.7% year-on-year to 410,420,579 cars across Europe. In this period each of Big Five European economies managed growth, with French sales growing the least, at 1.4% to 1,497,464.

Brian Walters, vice president of data at JATO Dynamics, said: "European new car sales not only continued to grow in October, but did so at an even higher rate than in recent months. It was another great month for a number of the biggest brands and more established models, but the continued success of small crossovers shows that demand for innovative new products continues to grow."