The European car market has seen the first year-on-year drop for 10 months of new car registrations after they fell in April 2010 when compared to same month a year ago.

Figures released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (Acea), showed that 1.14 million cars were registered in the month, down 7.4 per cent on last years figure for April.

The fall came as scrappage schemes were introduced by governments in many European countries last year, but have since been wound up according to Acea. The schemes, which were to encourage the sales of new cars, have since been wound up, with the fall being as much as 25 per cent in some countries.

A statement from Acea said, “In the first months of the present year government support has ended or begun to fade out and the economic situation remains difficult.”

Germany saw the largest year-on-year drop in registrations, recording a fall of 31.7 per cent on last April following their scheme ending in September. The scrappage programmes had succeeded in boosting sales across Europe, but sales have begun to drop again compared to a year ago.

France however, whose scrappage scheme remains in place at a reduced level, witnessed a rise of 1.9 per cent in registrations.

Of the car companies who benefited the most during the scheme, Japan’s Nissan came out on top. Nissan recorded a figure of 38.3 per cent more of their cars on the road in April compared to a year ago.

Other companies who saw advantages from the scheme were BMW, recording a rise of 13.1 per cent and Renault whose sales increased by 8.7 per cent.

Fiat suffered the most with new registrations down by 27.3 per cent. Toyota’s sales fell by 20.7 per cent following a number of high-profile safety recalls, while General Motors (GM) recorded a decline of 19.1 per cent.

The figures for the first four months of 2010 revealed that registrations were 4.8 per cent up on a year ago, but they were significantly reduced on the levels before the economic crisis hit.