In a surprising turn of events, the Dacia Sandero has been crowned Europe’s best-selling car for July 2021, beating the VW Golf in its own game. The Romanian budget-friendly supermini sold 20,446 units in July, proving to be quite popular with European buyers and reaching the top spot for the first time ever.

In total, the European market fell by 24 percent last month with 967,830 sales according to JATO, following four months of growth. For comparison, Europe had 1.27 million sales in July 2020 and 1.32 million sales in July 2019 before the pandemic. Most automakers and markets saw a great decline in the new car registrations, not only because of the pandemic but also due to the shortage of semiconductors affecting the availability. Still, 2021 sales for the first seven months of the year are 24 percent higher than the same period of 2020.

Read Also: Toyota Sold Its 50 Millionth Corolla This Summer After 12 Generations And 55 Years

The third generation of the Sandero was officially revealed last year together with the Sandero Stepway and Logan siblings. Unlike its predecessors who were built in dated underpinnings, the new model is based on the latest CMF-B platform by Renault Group. Still, it is one of the cheapest models in the B-Segment.

Whilst looking fairly modern and offering adequate space for its segment, the cheap price does come at a cost, since the Sandero only managed to grab a two-star safety rating by Euro-NCAP, mostly due to pedestrian protection and standard ADAS equipment. Additionally, the cheapest variant is not equipped with an infotainment touchscreen, offering a smartphone dock instead.

Read Also: Despite What Euro NCAP Says, The Dacia Sandero Could Be One Of The Safest Cars On Sale, And Here’s Why

Despite losing the top spot, Volkswagen is the brand with the most cars in the top-10 thanks to the Golf (19,425 units) in second place, the Polo (17,343 units) in fourth, the T-Roc (16,494 units) in fifth, and the T-Cross (14,170 units) in seventh place. It remains Europe’s best-selling brand despite a 19 percent drop.

July’s best-seller list also includes the Toyota Yaris (18,858 units) who came third, the Hyundai Tucson (14,883 units) in sixth place, the Dacia Duster (13,329 units) in eighth place, the Ford Puma (13,283 units) in ninth place, and the rival Peugeot 2008 (13,134 units) in 10th place. As we can see, six out of 10 best-selling cars were SUVs, three were B-Segment superminis and only one was a C-Segment hatchback.

Volkswagen tops the charts in electric vehicles with the ID.3 (5,433 units) remaining the best-selling BEV, ahead of the Renault Zoe (3,976), the Kia Niro EV (3.953 units), and other rivals. In PHEVs, the Ford Kuga (4,247) came first, followed by the Peugeot 3008 (3.039 units) and the Volvo XC40 (2,931).

Combined sales of BEV and PHEV models in July were 160,646 units, accounting for 17 percent of all car sales. While this is impressive, Automotive News Europe reports that it wasn’t enough to surpass diesel car’s 22 percent share, with gasoline vehicles still the most popular option with a conquering 59 percent share.