Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog

Ford Escort

* See the Top 20 best-selling models and Top 10 brands by clicking on the title! *

Thanks to Chris, author of British Leyland Chronicles, and via Andrew I am now able to share with you the best-selling models in Ireland in 1974, nearly 20 years prior to the previous oldest data for Ireland which was 1993! 60,529 new cars found a buyer in 1974 in Ireland and while in the UK the Ford Escort had to wait until 1976 to take the lead of the models ranking away from the Ford Cortina, in Ireland it does so already in 1974 with a fantastic 12.4% market share vs. 7.2% in the UK and vs. 8.1% for the Cortina at #2.

Fiat 124 Special

The Hillman Hunter rounds up the podium at a strong 6.8% share (vs. #11 and 2.6% in the UK), followed by the BMC Mini at 5.5% and, strikingly, 3 Fiats in a row: the 127 at 5% of the Irish market and the 124 and 128 both at 4.8%. In fact, Fiat is the #2 brand in the country this year with no less than 18% of the market! There are two more foreigners in the Top 10: the VW Beetle at #8 and Renault R4 at #9. Notice also the Datsun Cherry at #19

Last Ireland post: Ireland October 2012: Skoda Octavia and Kia Cee’d up

Ireland Historical post: Ireland: 1993-2011 Historical Data now available!

Next post: Ireland 1993-1994: Opel Astra and Toyota Corolla shine

Full Year 1974 Top 20 models and Top 10 brands Ranking Tables below.

Ireland 1974 – models:

Note: Sales figures were calculated based on the total market and the models’ market shares and may therefore not be 100% accurate.

Ireland 1974 – brands:

Many thanks to Chris and Andrew for sharing the data!