UK 6 months 2013: Peugeot 208 & BMW 1 Series break into Top 10

Peugeot 208

* See the Top 10 best-selling models and Top 44 All-brands by clicking on the title! *

The UK new car market is one of the worldwide big surprises this year: contrasting with continental Europe stuck in recession, sales in the UK are up a fantastic 10% year-on-year halfway through 2013 to 1,163,623 registrations. This is the biggest gain in the world’s Top 10 car markets, and even more impressively, this figure is pulled up by private sales which means that the recovery is ‘genuine’ and not boosted by fleet sales. Hopefully I will be able to share with you an all-models ranking for the UK soon as it has been the case every Quarter for the last couple of years, but for now let’s look at the available figures: the Top 10.

The Ford Fiesta is on track to lodge its 10th year atop the UK rankings.

No surprise in pole position: the Ford Fiesta is on track to lodge its 5th consecutive year atop the UK sales charts and its 10th in total after 1990, 1991, 1996 to 1998 and 2009 to 2012, which would place the Fiesta nameplate equal with the Ford Cortina and Focus and second to just the Escort (12 years). It sells 63,040 units over the period, up 6% year-on-year for a 5.4% share vs. 5.6% one year ago. Thanks to the new model now in full gear and sales up 9% to 47,675, the Ford Focus reclaims the #2 spot from the Vauxhall Corsa, down 2% to 46,147.

The Vauxhall Astra is up 11% so far in 2013.

Interestingly, as the model has failed to convince consumers in Germany notably, the Vauxhall Astra is up a shiny 11% this year to 33,731 sales and 2.9%, passing the VW Golf down 7% to 32,131. The Nissan Qashqai will decidedly not stop impressing: while it is about to get facelifted, it is up 16% year-on-year to 27,112 sales but remains 6th, still the highest annual ranking by a Japanese model if it holds until the end of the year. We welcome two newcomers in the Top 10: the Peugeot 208, launched roughly at the same time last year, is up 1491% to #9 at 20,815 units and 1.8% while the BMW 1 Series is up a magnificent 30% to #10 with 20,007 sales.

Previous post: UK June 2013: 2 BMWs in Top 8, private sales up 21%!

One year ago: UK 6 months 2012: Discover the Top 347 All-models ranking!

Full 6 months 2013 Top 10 models and Top 44 All-brands Ranking Tables below.