This article analyses the engine and vehicle characteristics and CO2 emissions of the new passenger cars for the thirteen major brands of the European market. As in the first two articles of this work, the target is to find the real market parameters influencing exhaust CO2 emissions. This analysis is focused on the sales distribution of the major brands, EU average and within each country, and four main parameters of each brand having an impact on CO2 emissions: average vehicle weight, average engine capacity, average maximum and specific power. The average CO2 emissions of each brand on the new European driving cycle and its urban and extra urban parts are examined at the last part of this article. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.