Chart Of The Day: Auto Brand Market Share In The United Kingdom In 2014
We haven’t shied away from discussing the error of Volkswagen USA’s ways here on TTAC nor the results of those ways. Yet while the brand saw its U.S. market share fall from a measly 2.6% in 2013 to 2.2% in 2014 and group-wide market share fell from 3.9% to 3.6%, year-over-year, VW Group market share in the United Kingdom grew by half a percentage point to 20.7% in 2014.
True, the Volkswagen brand itself saw its market share fall despite year-over-year volume growth of 4%. Volkswagen is the UK’s third-best-selling brand behind Ford and GM’s Vauxhall.
Yes, it’s a bit of a different market across the pond. Bentley sells half as many vehicles in the UK home market as they do in the U.S., although the U.S. market is nearly seven times the size.
The Ford Fiesta was the UK’s best-selling car in 2014, the sixth consecutive year in which the Fiesta landed atop the leaderboard. The best-selling Volkswagen was the Golf, with a 14% YOY increase to 73,880 units, 57,374 units back of the top-ranked Fiesta; 7903 sales back of the third-ranked Vauxhall Astra.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
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Thanks for letting me know Hyundai is currently doing better than Toyota and Honda combined for the whole year, in a market that is the size equivalent to that of California;p. Also noting that they're selling volume comparable to other prestigious makers. Now only if they can think of more ways to grow on on their existing market...z
What do you expect from primitive island monkeys still rockin "Royal Family" parasites in 2015?
So the British aren't averse to German cars. It reminds me of a joke that made the rounds in London a couple of years ago: "The average Briton drives a German car to an Irish pub to drink Belgian beer, and on the way home stops at a Thai restaurant for take away, and eats it at home sitting on Danish furniture while watching American programs on a Japanese telly, and tells everyone he's suspicious of foreigners."
What stands out to me is that, despite GM and Ford's ownership of Opel/Vauxhall and Ford of Europe, both are thought of as fully European. Ab Opel isn't considered an American car any more than a Dodge Ram is an Italian truck.