UK: 1965-2023 Historical Data now available

October 31, 2012
Matt Gasnier
0 Comments

The Austin Mini ranked within the UK Top 10 up until 1981

The direct links to 42 UK Historical Data posts are below.

You can also check the UK nameplates records here

Thanks to Chris, author of the book “British Leyland: Chronicle of a car crash“, I can now share with you more detail on the UK best-selling models since 1965, date of the first available SMMT data. In particular, there is now at least a complete Top 10 models ranking from 1965 to 1979 and sales of each Austin, BMC, British Leyland, MG, Morris and Triumph model over the period.

The MGB peaked at 13,755 sales in 1973

While the UK new car market grew from 1.1 million units in 1965 to a record 1.7 million in 1979, the most striking event at the time is the imports share going from a mere 5.1% in 1965 to a huge 56.3% in 1979, its first time ever above 50%… Most UK manufacturers would then disappear during the eighties at the same time as foreign carmakers like Peugeot, Toyota and Nissan started manufacturing cars in the UK.

Click here to find more used cars in the UK. Note: the Used cars link is brought to you by Exchangeandmart.co.uk.

The Ford Cortina holds the all-time UK annual sales record at 193,784 units in 1979

As a reminder and thanks to Florian there is also at least a Top 15 models ranking from 1985 onwards, a Top 30 from 1995 onwards and a Top 100 for 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 and 2004 up until now. This is very rare as info beyond the Top 10 is very hard to find… Plus from 2004 onwards every Monthly Top 10 is available, that’s over 220 consecutive months.

The Rover SD1 was #13 in 1978

Witness the last years of the Ford Anglia (Harry Potter’s car!) and the Austin Morris 1100, in the Top 2 from 1965 to 1971. Since 1972 and for 40 consecutive years, a Ford model held the UK pole position: the Cortina (#1 for a total of 10 years), Escort (12 years), Fiesta (12 years) and Focus (10 years in a row from 1999 to 2008). This steak ended in 2021 with the victory of the Vauxhall Corsa and in 2022 with the Nissan Qashqai. The Cortina holds the all-time annual volume record in the UK with 193,784 units in 1979 whereas the Ford Sierra is the most successful model that never ranked #1, peaking at 175,911 sales in 1989.

Datsun Sunny

Discover how foreign models started to get a grip on the UK ranking, starting with the Datsun Sunny, first japanese car to rank within the year-end Top 10 in 1977 (#10) and the Datsun Cherry, #8 in 1981, a foreign model ranking record that would only be beaten 16 years later in 1997 when the locally produced Peugeot 306 ranked #7. The Nissan Qashqai, manufactured in the UK, is one of only a handful of Japanese cars to rank within the year-end UK Top 10, every year since 2010, breaking into the annual Top 5 for the first time in 2015 and ranking #1 in 2022. The Toyota Yaris also ranked #10 in 2021.

The MG Maestro was #6 in 1983

Follow year after year the sales of the legendary MGB, rediscover forgotten names like the Triumph Dolomite, Stag, Leyland Princess, Rover P6 and SD1, Morris Marina & Allegro and MG Maestro & Montego…

The Leyland Princess was #9 in 1975