BERLIN (Reuters) - European new car sales jumped 14 percent in February, industry data showed on Wednesday, helped by an extra selling day, even allowing Volkswagen's (>> Volkswagen AG) core brand to swing back to growth despite its diesel emissions scandal.

But the 4.4 percent increase at the Volkswagen (VW) brand was dwarfed by double-digit gains at all other major carmakers, including VW's mass-market rivals Ford (>> Ford Motor Company), Peugeot (>> PEUGEOT) and Opel/Vauxhall (>> General Motors Company) which surged 19 percent, 14.2 percent and 18.7 percent respectively, European auto industry association ACEA said.

Registrations rose to 1,092,825 million cars from 958,239 a year earlier, data for the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) showed, marking the 30th straight month of growth.

Two-month registrations were up 10 percent to 2,187 million vehicles, according to ACEA.

Luxury nameplates BMW (>> Bayerische Motoren Werke AG), Daimler's Mercedes-Benz (>> Daimler AG) and VW's Audi fared equally well, posting growth of 14.7 percent, 22.4 percent and 17.1 percent respectively.

Momentum was evenly spread across the 28-nation EU, with Greece and the Netherlands being the only countries that incurred a sales decline while data for Malta was unavailable.

"Europe is still in a recovery phase," Ian Fletcher, analyst at market research firm IHS Automotive said on Tuesday before ACEA had released its figures, citing improving economic growth, pent-up demand in southern European economies and strong company car demand.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan)