2019 (Full Year) Britain: Best-Selling Car Brands in the UK

In 2019, Ford and Volkswagen remained the best-selling car brands in Britain but Mercedes-Benz and BMW moved ahead of Vauxhall.

2019 (Full Year) Britain: Best-Selling Car Brands in the UK

In full-year 2019, Ford was the top-selling car marque in the UK but continued to lose market share. Volkswagen was again the second-largest car brand in Britain. Mercedes-Benz and BMW moved ahead of Vauxhall that had sales down by a tenth. The Ford Fiesta was again the favorite car of the Brits in 2019.

New passenger vehicle registrations in the UK decreased by 2.4% in 2019 to 2,311,140 cars – see British new car market overview 2019.

Latest British Car Sales Data: 2023: Market Overview, Brands, Models, Electric; 2022-2008.

Best-Selling Car Brands in Britain in 2019 (Full Year)

The 30 top-selling car marques in the UK in full-year 2019 were as follows according to the SMMT:

MARQUESales 2019Sales 2018% Change
Total2,311,1402,367,147-2.37
1Ford236,137254,082-7.06
2Volkswagen200,771203,133-1.16
3Mercedes-Benz171,823172,238-0.24
4BMW169,753172,048-1.33
5Vauxhall159,830177,298-9.85
6Audi138,924143,739-3.35
7Toyota105,192101,9223.21
8Kia97,32395,7641.63
9Nissan92,372102,637-10.00
10Hyundai83,28489,925-7.39
11Peugeot80,85181,043-0.24
12Land Rover76,54677,906-1.75
13Skoda75,05374,7240.44
14SEAT68,79862,8639.44
15MINI64,88467,021-3.19
16Renault59,13262,168-4.88
17Volvo56,20850,31911.70
18Citroen50,80649,6182.39
19Honda43,91352,570-16.47
20Mazda40,14839,6021.38
21Jaguar36,06937,019-2.57
22Suzuki35,06538,519-8.97
23Dacia30,95124,16928.06
24Fiat29,89035,652-16.16
25Mitsubishi16,19921,156-23.43
26Lexus15,71312,40526.67
27Porsche15,25712,43722.67
28MG13,0759,04944.49
29Jeep6,1936,1141.29
30DS4,2995,074-15.27
Source: SMMT

Top 10 Best-Selling Car Brands in the UK in 2019

In 2019, Ford remained the largest car brand in Britain despite selling 7% fewer cars than in 2018 and losing another half percent market share. Ford’s share of the British new car market was only 10.22% in 2019. Total Ford sales in Britain in 2019 were around 80,000 fewer cars than in 2016.

Volkswagen outperformed the broader market and gained some market share despite selling fewer cars in Britain in 2019 than a year ago.

Vauxhall sales in Britain in 2019 were down by nearly a tenth resulting in the venerable brand dropping from third a year ago to only fifth. Vauxhall should benefit from the launch of a new Corsa model in early 2020.

Both Mercedes-Benz and BMW moved up one rank position each with lower sales but above market average. Mercedes-Benz was recently named as the most trusted car brand in Britain with the A-Class being the fifth most-popular car model in the UK in 2019.

Audi maintained sixth place despite weaker sales. Toyota and Kia each moved up one rank position as the only two top-ten brands in the UK with higher volume sales in 2019.

Nissan slipped two rank positions with sales down by a tenth – the worst-performing top-ten car brand in Britain in 2019. Among the top-20 brands, only Honda performed worse.

Hyundai was again the tenth-largest car brand in the UK despite sales sharply down in 2019.

DS entered the top-30 list, despite weaker sales, at the expense of Smart that had sales nearly halved in Britain in 2019. In 2020, Smart is changing into an electric-only car brand.

See 2019 Britain: New Car Market Overview for more on the British new car market in 2019. The Ford Fiesta was again the top-selling car in Britain in 2019. British automotive production in 2019 was lower – cars -14%, commercial vehicle -8% and engines -7%.

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.