2014 (Full Year) Britain: Best-Selling Car Models

Ford Fiesta STIn 2014, the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus were again Britain’s favorite car models. Other top sellers were the Vauxhall Corsa, VW Golf, Vauxhall Astra and Nissan Qasqai. For the first time in a decade, no BMW was on the top-ten list of Britain’s best-selling car models. New passenger vehicle registrations in the UK increased by 9.5% in 2014 to just less than 2.5 million cars. Ford, Vauxhall and Volkswagen were the best-selling car brands.

Top Ten Best-Selling Car Models in Britain in 2014

The list of the top-ten most-popular car models in the UK in 2014 according to car sales statistics released by the SMMT was:

Rank 2014 Brand & Model Cars Sold 2014 Cars Sold 2013 Cars Sold 2012
1 Ford Fiesta 131,254 121,929 109,265
2 Ford Focus 85,140 87,350 83,115
3 Vauxhall Corsa 81,783 84,275 89,434
4 Volkswagen Golf 73,880 64,951 62,021
5 Vauxhall Astra 59,689 68,070 63,023
6 Nissan Qashqai 49,909 50,211 45,675
7 Volkswagen Polo 48,004 42,609 41,901
8 Audi A3 45,581
9 Fiat 500 44,005
10 Nissan Juke 39,263

List of the Ten Top-Selling Cars in the UK in 2014

The list of the best-selling car models in Britain has been fairly stable in recent years. The Ford Fiesta was the best-selling car model in Britain in 2014 for the sixth consecutive year. Although the rank order changed, the top-five most popular cars in Britain has been the same models since 2007 and the top-seven models have been the same cars for the past five years.

Britain’s favorite car model in 2014 thus was again the Ford Fiesta. In the UK, the Fiesta was last outsold by the Ford Focus (and Vauxhall Corsa) in 2008. In contrast to most other car models, sales of the Fiesta increased strongly with nearly 10,000 more Fiestas sold in 2014 compared to a year ago.

The Ford Focus was the second most-popular car model in Britain in 2014 for the second year in a row. However, sales of the Focus were down despite strong growth in the British car market.

Remarkably, the Vauxhall Corsa maintained a strong third place in the UK in 2014 despite an aging model being replaced only towards year-end. The Corsa has been Britain’s third most-popular car model since 2008 and was second in 2012.

The Volkswagen Golf regained fourth place from the Vauxhall Astra. The two car models have been swopping places often in recent years but the Golf clearly moved ahead in Britain in 2014. The Golf has been on the top-ten list of best-selling car models in the UK since 2005.

Sales of the Vauxhall Astra is again slipping with numbers sharply down in 2014 despite the nearly 10% growth in the overall market. In 2010, the Astra was the second best-selling car model in Britain with over 80,000 cars sold. A new model is expected towards the end of 2015.

The Nissan Qasqai was the sixth best-selling car model in Britain for the third consecutive year. The Qasqai has been on the top-ten list in the UK since 2010.

The Volkswagen Polo similarly has been on the top-ten list of best-selling car models in Britain since 2010. Despite receiving only a very minor update in 2014, Polo sales increased strongly to improve one rank position.

New on the list in 2014, and for the first time in the top-10 ever over a full calendar year, were the Audi A3, Fiat 500 and Nissan Juke. The three models dropping off the list from last year were the BMW 3 Series (7th), BMW 1 Series (9th) and the Peugeot 208 (10th). 2014 was the first time since 2005 that the BMW 3 Series failed to achieve a top-ten place amongst Britain’s favorite car models.

See also: Best-Selling Car Brands in the UK in 2014

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.