2019 (Q3) Britain: Best-Selling Car Brands and Models

January to September 2019: Ford, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz were the best-selling car brands in the UK with the Fiesta, Corsa and Golf the top-selling models.

During the first three quarters of 2019, Ford and Volkswagen were again the top-selling car marques in Britain. Mercedes-Benz moved ahead of Vauxhall. Despite weaker sales, the Ford Fiesta maintained its traditional position as the favorite car model of the British. The Vauxhall Corsa moved ahead of the VW Golf followed by the Ford Focus and the Mercedes-Benz A-Class.

British New Car Market in 2019 (Q3)

New passenger vehicle registrations in the UK contracted by 2.5% during the first three quarters of 2019 to 1,862,271 cars – around 50,000 fewer vehicles than were sold in Britain during the first nine months of 2018. The British new car market is at its lowest levels since 2013.

According to the SMMT, the contraction was the sharpest for diesel-engined cars that were down by a fifth to a market share of only 26%. Petrol-engined cars increased sales by 2.6% to take a nearly two-thirds market share. Battery electric vehicle registrations in Britain thus far in 2019 increased by 122% to a total of 25,097 cars or a market share of only 1.3%.

Best-Selling Car Brands in the UK in 2019 (Q3)

New passenger vehicle registration figures released by the SMMT showed the following as the top-selling car marques in Britain during the first nine months of 2019:

	MARQUE	Q1-3/2019	Q1-3/2018	Q1-3/2017	% Change 18/19
	Total	1,862,271	1,910,820	2,066,411	-2.54
1	Ford	188,124	206,103	234,180	-8.72
2	Volkswagen	157,040	157,685	165,376	-0.41
3	Mercedes-Benz	140,484	137,766	146,342	1.97
4	Vauxhall	137,229	143,656	161,751	-4.47
5	BMW	131,906	136,312	137,793	-3.23
6	Audi	113,254	124,101	138,535	-8.74
7	Toyota	86,881	85,742	84,802	1.33
8	Kia	80,185	78,726	76,571	1.85
9	Nissan	75,007	85,200	127,391	-11.96
10	Hyundai	68,669	75,798	75,315	-9.41
11	Peugeot	64,536	65,586	67,818	-1.60
12	Land Rover	60,713	60,304	66,956	0.68
13	Skoda	58,570	58,105	63,267	0.80
14	SEAT	54,995	50,490	44,237	8.92
15	MINI	50,743	49,425	51,801	2.67
16	Renault	47,986	49,777	58,646	-3.60
17	Volvo	44,348	37,506	36,574	18.24
18	Citroen	42,518	41,455	43,410	2.56
19	Honda	36,176	44,176	44,784	-18.11
20	Mazda	33,324	32,696	33,777	1.92
21	Suzuki	29,731	32,350	33,685	-8.10
22	Jaguar	29,364	28,675	29,054	2.40
23	Dacia	25,344	18,264	21,075	38.76
24	Fiat	24,870	29,182	38,453	-14.78
25	Mitsubishi	13,521	15,658	12,774	-13.65
26	Lexus	12,826	10,648	10,398	20.45
27	Porsche	10,000	10,633	10,933	-5.95
28	MG	9,352	6,695	3,321	39.69
29	Jeep	4,878	4,899	5,492	-0.43
30	smart	3,868	6,226	8,760	-37.87
31	Abarth	2,888	4,518	3,500	-36.08
32	DS	2,842	4,616	7,831	-38.43
33	Alfa Romeo	2,805	3,427	4,009	-18.15
34	Subaru	2,044	2,668	2,118	-23.39
35	Ssangyong	1,646	2,280	3,005	-27.81
36	Bentley	1,215	1,291	1,363	-5.89

NOTE: Source: SMMT Exclude other brands not listed separately.

Top-Selling Carmakers in Britain in 2019 (Q1-3)

The same ten carmakers as a year ago were the top-selling car brands in the UK during the first nine months of 2019 but there were some rank order changes.

Ford remained the best-selling car brand in the UK but sales were sharply down and Ford’s market share shrunk to only 10.1% of the British new car market. Despite weaker sales, Volkswagen gained some market share in Britain in 2019. The gap behind Ford shrunk from 50,000 cars in 2018 to only 30,000 thus far this year.

Mercedes-Benz became the third largest carmaker in Britain in terms of volume sales for the first time ever by surpassing Vauxhall. This is the highest sales position ever for Mercedes-Benz, which had an increase of 2% of sales – the only top-six brand with stronger sales in the UK thus far this year.

Vauxhall’s decline in the UK continued. It was for decades the second-largest carmaker in Britain but lost that position to VW in 2017. BMW and Audi maintained the rank positions of a year ago despite weaker sales.

Toyota and Kia both increased sales and were the only two top-ten brands with sales volumes higher than a year ago. Kia moved ahead of Nissan that was the worst-performing top-ten brand. Nissan sals thus far in 2019 were 50,000 cars fewer than two years ago. Hyundai maintained tenth place despite weaker sales.

The most-improved brands in the UK thus far in 2019 were MG, Dacia, Lexus and Volvo.

Almost all of the smaller brands had much weaker sales than a year ago. The worst-performing larger brands were Honda, Fiat, Mitsubishi and Nissan.

Best-Selling Car Models in the UK in 2019 (Q3)

According to the SMMT, the following were the top-selling car models in Britain during the period January to September 2019:

	Models	Q1-3/2019	Q1-3/2018	Q1-3/2017	Q1-3/2016
1	Ford Fiesta	64,564	79,416	64,988	96,139
2	Vauxhall Corsa	47,574	43,481	38,038	64,925
3	Volkswagen Golf	46,492	52,162	44,218	54,954
4	Ford Focus	45,932	40,222	47,291	57,137
5	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	43,293	31,800	26,875	NA
6	Nissan Qashqai	42,485	41,943	39,698	50,293
7	Mini	32,394	33,876	28,647	36,738
8	Ford Kuga	30,807	32,480	NA	NA
9	Volkswagen Polo	30,066	34,353	32,266	43,642
10	Kia Sportage	28,227	28,779	NA	NA
	Source: SMMT

Ten Top-Selling Car Models in Britain in 2019 (Q3)

The same ten models were again the ten best-selling cars in Britain as a year ago but the rank order changed.

The Ford Fiesta remained by far the top-selling car in Britain during the first three quarters of 2019. However, sales of Britain’s favorite car model were sharply down – 15,000 fewer than a year ago and 30,000 fewer than during the first three quarters of 2016.

The Vauxhall Corsa regained second place in Britain for the first time since 2016 with stronger sales. The Vauxhall Corsa is in its final months of GM-based production and the new model based on the Peugeot 208 / Citroen C3 will go on sale in Britain in coming months.

The VW Golf slipped back to third place with weaker sales. The new Ford Focus sold in higher numbers to gain fourth place from fifth a year ago.

The Mercedes-Benz A-Class had the highest volume gain of any top-ten car in Britain to take fifth place from ninth a year ago – its highest position ever in the UK.

After two years at fourth, the Nissan Qashqai slipped to sixth despite higher sales numbers. The Qashqai remained the favorite SUV of the British.

The Mini and Ford Kuga maintained their positions from a year ago while the VW Polo slipped from sixth to ninth. The Kia Sportage maintained tenth place.