Luxury car hire and performance vehicle enthusiasts will be pleased to know that one of their favourite car rental brands has announced an operating profit despite the hard economic times.

Interest from Volkswagen car rental fans and other motorists helped the German executive car producer increase its profits by 15 per cent in the first nine months of this year.

The German automaker's worldwide passenger car market share rose to 10.1 per cent as the group increased deliveries to 4.8 million vehicles exceeding last year's figure by 3.9 per cent.

Volkswagen car rental fans are assured of more from the carmaker as the company confirmed a positive outlook for the year ahead in light of its revenue rising to €4.9 billion (£3.9 billion).

"With its young and environmentally friendly model range, flexible production, solid finances and an outstanding team, the group's foundations are sound," said the company's chairman Martin Winterkorn as he announced the results.

Volkswagen's new Golf model secured a maximum five-star rating from the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) crash test agency.

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