UK 2006: Focus and Corsa on top, Fiesta leads for one month

Ford Fiesta

* See the Top 100 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Florian *

The British car market is down again in 2006, this time at -4% with 2,344,864 registrations. The Ford Focus is on top for the 8th year in a row, holding its share at 5.1% with 119,047 sales. The Vauxhall Astra stays #2, improving its share to 4.5% at 105,296 units. Thanks to a light facelift, the Ford Fiesta is back on the podium at 103,856 sales (+24%). In September, it put an end to 23 consecutive months of Focus leadership by ranking 1st with 21,793 units, the first time the Fiesta was #1 since March 2000.

Vauxhall Zafira

In spite of an 8% drop, the VW Golf is still the best-selling foreign model in the country at #5 and 62,011 sales, it even managed to jump to #3 in August. The Renault Clio is up 2 spots to a best-ever #6, the BMW 3 Series lodges its best year-end (7th) and monthly (3rd in December) positions ever in the UK at 50,248 sales. The Vauxhall Zafira appears in the year-end Top 10 for the very first time at #9 and 47,527 sales, peaking at #6 in April.

Peugeot 407

A few models break into the monthly Top 10 for the first time this year: the Peugeot 407 is #8 in February, the Honda Civic is #9 in April, the Honda Jazz is #9 in August and the Nissan Micra is #10 in September at a best-ever 7,456 sales. However the most important arrival is the Peugeot 207 in September (10,425 units), staying within the Top 10 for the rest of the year and peaking at #6 in November. It is #27 over the full year. The Fiat Punto is up 24 spots to #12 thanks to the new generation.

Full Year 2006 Top 100 Ranking Table: see ‘Read more’ below the Nissan Micra pic.

Nissan Micra