UK May 2012: Vauxhall Corsa leads, Fiat 500 in Top 10 again

Vauxhall Corsa

* See the Top 10 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

While most European countries are slowly but surely falling back into recession, UK car sales have a euphoric month of May, up 8% year-on-year to 162,288 registrations with private sales up 14%. This is the largest increase in 23 months and brings the year-to-date total to 868,166 units, up 3% on 2011. For the first time since October 2008, the Vauxhall Corsa takes the leads of the models ranking with 8,413 sales and 5.2% share. It is #2 year-to-date at 38,347 units and 4.4%.

Fiat 500

The Ford Fiesta is down to #2 for only the second time over the last 12 months (after last February when the Ford Focus was #1) with 8,337 sales and 5.1%. It stays in the lead year-to-date at 50,507 units and 5.8%, up 18% on 2011. The Ford Focus rounds up the podium at 4.3% followed by the VW Golf (+2), Vauxhall Astra (-1) and BMW 3 Series (-1).

The Fiat 500 manages to rank within the UK Top 10 for the second month in a row with 2,823 sales and 1.7%. It’s the 2nd time it does so and its 5th appearance among UK’s 10 favourite models overall after October 2009 (#10), December 2009 (#9), January 2010 (#10) and April 2012 (#10).

Previous month: UK April 2012: Fiat 500 in Top 10 for the first time in over 2 years

One year ago: UK May 2011: Ford Fiesta, Focus and VW Golf on podium

Full May 2012 Top 10 Ranking Table below.