* November new car registrations fall 17.6 percent - VDIK
* Adjusted for working days down 10 percent
* Jan-Nov registrations off 1.5 percent
(Adds market reaction, background)
FRANKFURT, Dec 2 (Reuters) - New car registrations in Germany plunged nearly 18 percent in November, keeping Europe's biggest economy on track for the worst year of auto sales since German reunification in 1990.
A widening economic slump that kept consumers from splashing out on cars pushed new registrations in November down to 233,800 vehicles, the VDIK association of foreign carmakers said on Tuesday.
Adjusted for working days, the drop was around 10 percent, roughly in line with the decline in the two previous months.
"The crisis has again worsened dramatically, as expected," VDIK President Volker Lange said in a statement, forecasting the lowest annual car sales since reunification.
Carmakers have reported tumbling sales across Asia and Europe this week as the recession drives buyers from showrooms and prompts warnings of more gloom next year.
Spanish car sales nearly halved last month, the biggest fall in nearly 16 years and the seventh straight month of decline, as credit restrictions and soaring unemployment took their toll.
Overall French new car registrations shrank 14 percent, Belgian new cars sales fell 16.4 percent, and the Italian market contracted 29.5 percent.
VDIK statistics showed new car registrations, which closely track car sales, were down 1.5 percent in the first 11 months of the year to around 2.86 million units in Germany.
The DJ Stoxx European car sector index still gained 2.9 percent by 1106 GMT, outpacing a firmer broader market in Europe . The auto index has narrowly outperformed the broader market thanks primarily to Volkswagen's dramatic price gains in a short squeeze.
Sales have fallen so much this year that carmakers are cutting back on production, extending temporary plant closures and seeking help from governments to ride out the savage cutback in consumer spending.
The European Commission has pledged to help the car industry and included it in a 200 billion euro ($252.2 billion) economic stimulus package. It has also agreed to give carmakers some breathing room by giving them more time to meet tougher clean-air standards.
Berlin agreed last month to waive temporarily tax on new cars for a year, and for two years on cars with especially low emissions, as a way to spur sales.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter) (michael.shields@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters Messaging: michael.shields.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1266)) ($1=.7931 Euro)