French new car sales drop 7.8% in October

French new car sales plunged by 7.8 percent in October on a monthly basis and by 13.3 percent in the first 10 months of the year, data released on Friday by the French automobile manufacturers' association CCFA showed. A total of 162,411 new cars were registered last month in France, a statement said, as the second biggest eurozone economy struggled to make headway. French car makers were among those that suffered the biggest drops, with sales by PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second biggest European auto manufacturer, down by 5.0 percent, and those by the Renault group posting a plunge of 26.4 percent. The CCFA expects a drop in car sales of 12 percent for 2012 as a whole.