2012 First Quarter Top Selling Car Brands and Manufacturers in Britain

During the first three months of 2012, the British car market showed weak growth with Ford, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen the strongest selling car brands.

White Frod Focus Car
© Ford Motor Co

The first quarter of 2012 saw an increase of almost a percentage point in new passenger vehicle registrations in the United Kingdom. The British car market grew by 0.93% to 563,556 new passenger cars registered during the first three months of the year. Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, and Audi were the best-selling car manufacturers.

Top-Selling Car Brands and Manufacturers in the UK, Q1/2012

Car sales statistics released by the SMMT showed the list of the top 20 best-selling car marques in the UK for the first quarter of 2012 as follows:

First Quarter (January to March) % Change
MARQUE 2012 % Market share 2011 % Market share
Total 563,556 558,336 0.93
1 Ford 82,848 14.70 80,028 14.33 3.52
2 Vauxhall 57,836 10.26 66,701 11.95 -13.29
3 Volkswagen 49,873 8.85 46,679 8.36 6.84
4 Audi 35,962 6.38 32,821 5.88 9.57
5 Nissan 30,081 5.34 25,006 4.48 20.30
6 BMW 30,063 5.33 30,290 5.43 -0.75
7 Peugeot 29,411 5.22 28,491 5.10 3.23
8 Toyota 25,760 4.57 23,696 4.24 8.71
9 Mercedes-Benz 25,576 4.54 22,632 4.05 13.01
10 Citroen 19,585 3.48 20,546 3.68 -4.68
11 Hyundai 17,761 3.15 17,343 3.11 2.41
12 Kia 17,211 3.05 14,670 2.63 17.32
13 Land Rover 15,810 2.81 13,264 2.38 19.19
14 Honda 14,747 2.62 17,027 3.05 -13.39
15 Skoda 13,878 2.46 11,172 2.00 24.22
16 Fiat 13,059 2.32 12,340 2.21 5.83
17 Renault 11,581 2.05 20,391 3.65 -43.21
18 MINI 11,306 2.01 12,106 2.17 -6.61
19 SEAT 10,084 1.79 10,471 1.88 -3.70
20 Mazda 9,708 1.72 10,452 1.87 -7.12

Source: SMMT

Best-Selling Car Makes and Brands in Britain, Q1/2012

Ford and Vauxhall easily maintained their top two positions as Britain’s favorite car makes. Ford showed positive growth but Vauxhall continues to weaken and further bled market share.

Volkswagen and Audi maintained their third and fourth places but both German brands performed well in the UK during the first quarter of 2012 to increase both sales and gain market share.

However, of the top manufacturers in Britain, Nissan was the most improved and gained fifth position at the expense of BMW and Peugeot.

Changes in the Top-Selling Car Brands in the UK, Q1/2012

Renault (-43%) continues to show a disastrous performance on the British new car market. Honda, and mass producer Vauxhall both had a very weak start to the year with sales down by an unlucky 13%.

Skoda was the most improved brand on the British car market during the first quarter of 2012 by increasing sales by nearly a quarter. Nissan and Land Rover increased sales by around a fifth while Kia and Mercedes-Benz both enjoyed double-digit growth. Audi also had strong sales while BMW and Mini both registered negative numbers.

About the author:

Henk Bekker

Henk Bekker is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience in online writing. His best-selling cars website has been reporting car sales statistics since 2008 with classic car auction prices focusing on the most expensive automobiles sold at public auctions in the past decade. He also owns the travel websites European-Traveler.com and Lake Geneva Switzerland. Henk holds an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and an MSc in Finance from the University of London.