LightAuto

Britain's Real Best Selling Cars

The British motor magazine the Autocar
carried out an investigation into the purchasing preferences of the British private
motorist, as opposed to the published overall sales figures. This was in the beginning of 2004.
To achieve that they subtracted the sales figures for fleet sales from the overall sales figures.
Fleet sales are cars purchased by companies for use by their employees. The cars are used
for the purpose of carrying out the companies business, and considerations of cost and
carrying capacity are dominant. In many other countries vans would be used for this purpose.
These account for 56 percent of all cars sold in the United Kingdom.

The on the other hand the individual motorist have different requirements,
although running costs are important, personal preferences have a big impact on their choice of car.
That choice seems to be dominantly for light cars. The British private motorist's top choice was the Ford
Fiesta; the second most popular purchase was the Renault Clio. Third on the
list was the Peugeot 206 and fourth the General Motors Corsa, sold as a Vauxhall in Britain.
The fifth and sixth are larger cars, the Ford Focus and VW Golf respectively. The Ford Ka was seventh
and the "Mini", now a supermini eight. The Nissan Micra came ninth on the list and the tenth was the VW Polo.
By my reckoning that's two mini cars, five supermini's and two small family cars. Three of the ten are
produced in the United Kingdom but not by British companies, but national origins seem to have no
influence on the buyer's choice, and all are produced in Europe.
The majority of private motorist's that prefer medium and large cars, purchase cars that are disposed
of from the company fleets, usual three plus years old.

Rover Lightweight Cars 1904 to 2004.
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