UK 2008: Ford Focus, Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Fiesta fight it out

Ford Focus

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

In 2008 the English car market is hit by the credit crunch at -11% and 2,131,795 registrations. The Ford Focus celebrates its 10th consecutive year atop the British sales ranking but how difficult it was! In fact, the Focus only held the #1 spot for 5 months this year and none after July… It delivers its weakest volume since the nameplate was launched in 1999 at 101,586 units.

Vauxhall Corsa

The performer of the year is without doubt the Vauxhall Corsa, now feeling the full effects of its recent and complete overhaul. It ranks #1 in June and then for 3 months in a row from August to October. It’s the first time in a decade a model other than the Focus manages to hold the top spot for so long. The Corsa finishes the year only 2,000 units below the Focus at 99,574 sales and 4.7%.

In 3rd place, the Ford Fiesta drops 8% at 94,989 units but the completely redesigned 7th generation launched in October is an immediate hit: it is best seller in the country in November and December, a very good sign for 2009… The Vauxhall Astra is the 4th model to hold the pole position at some stage this year: it did so in February for the 4th time in the past 6 months and delivers 90,641 units by year-end (-20%).

Honda Civic

The Top 3 best-selling foreign models stay unchanged: VW Golf (-6%), Peugeot 207 (-20%) and BMW 3 Series (-16%). The new gen Ford Mondeo struggles at the start but then reaches a brilliant 3rd place in December. It finishes the year at #8, up 3 spots on 2007. The Honda Civic ranks within the Top 10 for the 3rd time in 2 years in March and stays #13 overall, its best-ever position. The Audi A3 (January), BMW 1 Series (October) and Peugeot 308 (December) all break into the Top 10 for the first time this year.

BMW 1 Series

Further down the ranking and aside from the Peugeot 308, there are two newcomers in the year-end Top 30: the Nissan Qashqai up 10 spots to #26 and the Nissan Note also up 10 ranks to #28. The Fiat 500 lands directly at #36 with 15,109 sales and the Jaguar XF is now the brand’s best-seller, ranking #61 with 8,885 units.

Full Year 2008 Top 100 Ranking Table below.