MG Rover suffered a 25% decline in European sales last month compared to February 2004, while Jaguar registrations tumbled by a fifth.

Peugeot saw sales drop by 5.2%.

Only Land Rover survived the Europe-wide slump, and buoyed by the new Discovery managed to increase sales by 0.8% in the year-to-date. However, year-on-year February sales went down by 1.0% to 3,847.

Sales of MG Rover fell from 6,439 in February 2004 to 4,736 last month, a drop of 26.4%.

In the year-to-date, the number of vehicles sold by MG Rover is down from 16,333 in 2004 to 13,049, a decline of 20.1%. Jaguar saw new registrations fall 21.2% from 2,748 in February 2004 to 2,166 cars. The year-to-date decline was 23.8% from 7,717 in 2004 to 5,878 vehicles.

The firm enjoyed a slight increase in year to date sales, which rose 0.8% to 10,505.

Most brands suffered a downturn in sales during the month, which saw the total number of car registrations fall by 4.1%.

A total of 1.05 million vehicles were sold in Europe in February, down 4.1% from 1.095 million in the same month last year, the Brussels-based carmakers' group ACEA yesterday.