Volkswagen on Wednesday showed resilience in a weakening European car market, reporting larger than expected second-quarter profits and saying its forecast for 2008 remained unchanged.

The group, Europe’s largest carmaker, increased its net profits by almost 35 per cent in the three months to June to more than €1.6bn. Helped by a string of new models including the Tiguan compact sports-utility vehicle, the group sold 4.8 per cent more cars worldwide.