Third place a charm: Volkswagen Polo now the third most popular car in the UK
Just as we thought it possibly couldn’t get any higher, the Volkswagen Polo impressively jumped two places up the UK new car registrations chart last month and became the third most popular car in the country. With 3,847 units registered, the Polo now sits under its larger Golf sibling which is at number two in July’s top ten chart released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The Polo rose one place to number six in the year-to-date list, too, while Ford’s all-ruling Fiesta once again topped the monthly list, with 6,222 registrations.
As well as the Golf and Polo, Volkswagen completed a trio in July’s registration figures, as the Tiguan repeated its feat from June’s tally, and stayed firm in ninth place with 2,687 units finding homes. With 45,512 units, the Golf also retained its second place in the year-to-date list. Year-on-year demand grew 1.2 per cent according to the SMMT, with 163,898 cars joining the UK’s road network, although the year-to-date market is down by 5.5 per cent.
Other figures to note are those of alternatively-fuelled cars which rose 21 per cent (10,734 units), to take a 6.5 per cent market share. Diesel registrations were down by 24.4 per cent, while petrol-engined cars rose by 20.1 per cent. The UK’s top 10 most popular cars during July 2018 and the year-to-date (sales figure and position in brackets) were as follows:
1 Ford Fiesta: 6,222 (62,637, 1st)
2 Volkswagen Golf: 5,582 (45,512, 2nd)
3 Volkswagen Polo: 3,847 (25,874, 6th)
4 Vauxhall Corsa: 3,670 (31,673, 5th)
5 Nissan Qashqai: 3,470 (33,536, 3rd)
6 Audi A3: 2,687
7 Mercedes-Benz A Class: 2,840 (22,842, 9th)
8 Ford Kuga: 2,776 (24,560, 8th)
9 Volkswagen Tiguan: 2,687
10 Kia Sportage: 2,442
(The UK’s 2018 year-to-date top 10 most popular cars absent from July’s registration figures were the fourth-placed Ford Focus, the seventh-placed Mini, and the tenth-placed Mercedes-Benz C Class with 32,899, 25,704 and 27,812 registrations respectively.)
In South Africa, the sixth-generation Polo claimed the best-selling passenger car prize in July, with 2,817 units finding new homes. The fifth-generation Polo-based Polo Vivo was second, with 2,351 examples registered. The Polo Vivo has been consistently top of the registrations chart since its introduction in 2010. The latest Polo is also the most popular car in the Netherlands of all places, with top ten entries in Austria, Italy and Slovenia among others, according to figures from JATO Dynamics.