RTRS:Euro zone new car sales fall, VW warns on 2012
* Euro zone Nov car sales up 1.9 pct m/m. down 3.3 pct y/y
* VW grows in Europe at expense of Peugeot, Fiat, others-data
* VW group car sales up 15.3 pct in November y/y (Recasts, adds Volkswagen comments)
FRANKFURT, Dec 16 (Reuters) - New car sales in the euro zone dropped 3.3 percent in November from the same month last year, data showed on Friday, and Europe's No.1 carmaker Volkswagen warned of tougher times ahead, despite its own strong performance.
"Despite the anticipated high delivery levels for this year we are already preparing for a very challenging year in 2012. Risks on European markets in particular are increasing," Volkswagen's head of sales, Christian Klingler, said.
Euro zone car sales rose 1.9 percent in November from the month before, data from European auto industry association (ACEA) showed,
In the 17 states that share the single currency, new car registrations increased to 795,719 vehicles thanks to solid growth in Germany and Spain from October to November.
Car sales are an important contributor to overall retail sales in the euro zone, which have been struggling as households see their disposable incomes squeezed by higher prices, muted wages growth and government austerity measures.
Volkswagen's global car sales in November swelled by 15.3 percent from a year earlier, the owner of VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat brands said.
The ACEA data showed Volkswagen expanding its share of sales in Europe at the expense of other European brands like Peugeot and Fiat.
Thanks to a 13.1 percent increase in November year-on-year, the VW brand alone is within a hair of grabbing a bigger share of the western European market in the first eleven months than Peugeot and Citroen combined.
The Fiat brand saw its new car registrations decline 15.7 percent last month over November 2010 while Peugeot's plunged 19.3 percent.
South Korea's Kia was a major winner of the month, as its new car registrations in western Europe jumped just over 40 percent in November. (Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner and Ludwig Burger, Editing by Mark Potter)
