Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: The 347 Best Selling Models Of The Olympic Country

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

After a trip to Bulgaria and the much anticipated June 2012 World Roundup, I wasn’t going to let the London Olympics go without an update on the UK car market. London-ed out already? No worries, you can visit 167 additional countries and territories in my blog, go on, you know you want to!

Or you can check out the Top 260 best-selling models in the US in July here.

The last time I spoke to you about the UK car market in detail was in May 2011 for the Royal Wedding

Since then there has been a lot of water down the (London) bridge. That was an easy pun…

Over the first 6 months of 2012, new car sales are up 3% year-on-year in the UK to 1,057,680 units, which in the current sombre European context is actually an excellent performance. The Ford Fiesta is the best-seller in the country as it has been in 2009, 2010 and 2011, with sales up 15 percent to 59,570 units and a 5.6 percent market share.

Below, the Vauxhall Corsa is up 22 percent and passes the Ford Focus, thanks to 47,147 and 4.5 percent share vs. 43,853 and 4.1 percent. The Corsa even led the overall market in May for the first time since October 2008.

The VW Golf and Vauxhall Astra stay #4 and #5 while the Nissan Qashqai delivers a brilliant performance, up 17 percent and 3 spots to #6 with 23,435 sales and 2.2% share. If it keeps this ranking until the end of the year, the Nissan Qashqai will become the highest ranking Japanese model in the UK ever at year-end.

The BMW 3 Series is up one to #7 and the Mini also at #9. Within the Top 20, the best performers over the period are the Fiat 500, up 26 percent and 4 ranks to #11 with 17,495 units, even ranking within the monthly Top 10 for 3 consecutive months in April, May and June. The Audi A3 is also up 4 spots to #12 with 16,352 units, the Toyota Yaris up no less than 19 spots and 54% to #15 with 15,241 sales, and the Nissan Juke up 8 to #16 with 14,600 units.

UK 6 months 2012

PosModel6m 2012%/116m 2011%Pos1Ford Fiesta59,5705.6%15%51,6435.0%12Vauxhall Corsa47,1474.5%22%38,5973.7%33Ford Focus43,8534.1%0%43,8254.3%24VW Golf34,5723.3%4%33,1183.2%45Vauxhall Astra30,4832.9%-7%32,8833.2%56Nissan Qashqai23,4352.2%17%19,9921.9%97BMW 3 Series23,0352.2%5%21,8662.1%88VW Polo22,3492.1%-2%22,8972.2%79Mini18,5451.8%0%18,6191.8%1010Vauxhall Insignia17,8901.7%-31%25,9502.5%611Fiat 50017,4951.7%26%13,8791.3%1512Audi A316,3521.5%21%13,5581.3%1613Peugeot 20715,7831.5%-13%18,1641.8%1114BMW 1 Series15,3401.5%-4%16,0461.6%1315Toyota Yaris15,2411.4%54%9,9151.0%3416Nissan Juke14,6001.4%27%11,4611.1%2417Mercedes E Class13,2251.3%-1%13,2921.3%1718Ford Mondeo11,9911.1%0%12,0011.2%2219Mercedes C Class11,7381.1%-27%16,1851.6%1220VW Passat11,6141.1%-23%15,0161.5%14

See the Top 347 best-selling models (all of them) in the UK over 6 months 2012 here

See the Top 316 best-selling models (all of them) in the UK over 3 months 2012 here

See the Top 323 best-selling models (all of them) in the UK in 2011 here

Further down, the Range Rover Evoque brilliantly breaks into the UK Top 30 at #29 with 9,496 sales and 0.9 percent share.

A very interesting development at the Citroen DS3 is now the brand’s best-seller in the country with 8,889 sales and 0.9 percent as the C1 ranks #36 and the C3 is down 48% and 29 spots to

As far as ‘locals’ are concerned (even though these brands are now owned by overseas companies), let’s notice the Mini Countryman at the Land Rover Freelander at the Jaguar XF at the Land Rover Discovery at #70 and the Range Rover Sport at

In other news, the Toyota Prius ranks just above the Lexus CT at #95 and #96 respectively, the Peugeot 208 is with 1,308 sales, the MG 6 is with 523 units, the Bentley Continental GT/GTC is with 474 sales, the Aston Martin V8/V12 Vantage the Rolls-Royce Ghost the Bentley Continental Flying Spur the Rolls-Royce Phantom Bentley Continental Supersport Aston Martin Cygnet

…and Vauxhall VXR8 with one unit sold.

Now!

You are an expert at car sales in the UK and I’m sure it is with great relief that you will now tune in on the Olympics broadcast, now being able to decipher every single car that appears in the background or on London streets. Let the show off begin…

Source: SMMT

Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.

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  • Polar Bear Polar Bear on Aug 06, 2012

    Shh! Don't tell the Brits Vauxhall is actually Opel.

    • See 2 previous
    • MeaCulpa MeaCulpa on Aug 07, 2012

      @mike978 75%? What are they, the shut ins of Europe? Not being a Schengen country and only 75% having passports is week.

  • Tstag Tstag on Aug 07, 2012

    My point is the small Vauxhall brand Has high market share compared to Opel. Why?

  • Jeff JMII--If I did not get my Maverick my next choice was a Santa Cruz. They are different but then they are both compact pickups the only real compact pickups on the market. I am glad to hear that the Santa Cruz will have knobs and buttons on it for 2025 it would be good if they offered a hybrid as well. When I looked at both trucks it was less about brand loyalty and more about price, size, and features. I have owned 2 gm made trucks in the past and liked both but gm does not make a true compact truck and neither does Ram, Toyota, or Nissan. The Maverick was the only Ford product that I wanted. If I wanted a larger truck I would have kept either my 99 S-10 extended cab with a 2.2 I-4 5 speed or my 08 Isuzu I-370 4 x 4 with the 3.7 I-5, tow package, heated leather seats, and other niceties and it road like a luxury vehicle. I believe the demand is there for other manufacturers to make compact pickups. The proposed hybrid Toyota Stout would be a great truck. Subaru has experience making small trucks and they could make a very competitive compact truck and Subaru has a great all wheel drive system. Chevy has a great compact pickup offered in South America called the Montana which gm could be made in North America and offered in the US and Canada. Ram has a great little compact truck offered in South America as well.
  • Groza George I don’t care about GM’s anything. They have not had anything of interest or of reasonable quality in a generation and now solely stay on business to provide UAW retirement while they slowly move production to Mexico.
  • Arthur Dailey We have a lease coming due in October and no intention of buying the vehicle when the lease is up.Trying to decide on a replacement vehicle our preferences are the Maverick, Subaru Forester and Mazda CX-5 or CX-30.Unfortunately both the Maverick and Subaru are thin on the ground. Would prefer a Maverick with the hybrid, but the wife has 2 'must haves' those being heated seats and blind spot monitoring. That requires a factory order on the Maverick bringing Canadian price in the mid $40k range, and a delivery time of TBD. For the Subaru it looks like we would have to go up 2 trim levels to get those and that also puts it into the mid $40k range.Therefore are contemplating take another 2 or 3 year lease. Hoping that vehicle supply and prices stabilize and purchasing a hybrid or electric when that lease expires. By then we will both be retired, so that vehicle could be a 'forever car'. And an increased 'carbon tax' just kicked in this week in most of Canada. Prices are currently $1.72 per litre. Which according to my rough calculations is approximately $5.00 per gallon in US currency.Any recommendations would be welcomed.
  • Eric Wait! They're moving? Mexico??!!
  • GrumpyOldMan All modern road vehicles have tachometers in RPM X 1000. I've often wondered if that is a nanny-state regulation to prevent drivers from confusing it with the speedometer. If so, the Ford retro gauges would appear to be illegal.
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