European car sales plunged the most in almost two years, with Renault and Fiat posting the steepest declines, as the region's sovereign-debt crisis led to reduced demand in Germany, its largest economy.

Registrations plummeted 11 percent to 1.13 million vehicles last month from 1.27 million a year earlier, Brussels-based industry association ACEA said in a statement.

It was the 12th consecutive monthly drop and the biggest decline since October 2010. Nine-month sales dropped 7.2 percent to 9.72 million cars.

"What has changed remarkably to the negative recently is the German market," Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Bankhaus Metzler, said before the figures were released. PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, Renault and Fiat "are still suffering from their weak home markets, which is their biggest problem."

Four of Europe's five biggest automotive markets shrank last month, with drops of 11 percent in Germany, 18 percent in France, 26 percent in Italy and 37 percent in Spain.