Volkswagen Polo remains in UK’s most popular top five cars list
Following its return to the UK’s top 10 most popular cars list last month, once again the Volkswagen Polo was the fifth most sought-after model during May 2018, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). A total of 3,961 Polos found homes in May, a scant 29 units ahead of its Vauxhall Corsa rival. The Ford Fiesta once again beat both, though, with an almost double 6,896 registrations tally.
Volkswagen’s perennial best-seller, the Golf, slipped to third place with 6,372 units registered, though with 33,057 cars with new homes, it stays in second place for the year-to-date. Here, too, though, the Ford Fiesta leads the market with 47,515 examples registered since January. The UK market as whole grew 3.4 per cent in May, with 192,649 cars registered. In May 2017, the market saw a -8.5 per cent decline, while 2018 year-to-date figures also record negative values, the UK market falling 6.8 per cent.
Other figures of note are that of hybrids and plug-in cars which rose more than a third (36.1 per cent, 11,240 units) to take a record 5.8 per cent market share, while superminis (the Polo’s segment) were up six per cent. Diesels fell by 23.6 per cent, while petrol-engined car totals rose by 23.5 per cent. The UK’s top 10 most popular cars during May 2018 and the year-to-date (sales figure and position in brackets) were as follows:
1 Ford Fiesta: 6,896 (47,515, 1st)
2 Ford Focus: 6,573 (25,917, 4th)
3 Volkswagen Golf: 6,372 (33,057, 2nd)
4 Nissan Qashqai: 4,956 (26,127, 3rd)
5 Volkswagen Polo: 3,961 (16,533, 9th)
6 Vauxhall Corsa: 3,932 (21,927, 5th)
7 Mini: 3,505 (17,802, 7th)
8 Mercedes-Benz C Class: 2,955 (16,414, 10th)
9 Mercedes-Benz A Class: 2,939 (17,788, 8th)
10 Audi A3: 2,791
(The UK’s 2018 year-to-date top 10 most popular car absent from May’s registration figures was the sixth-placed Ford Kuga, with 18,570 registrations recorded.)
Further afield, the sixth-generation Polo has overtaken the fifth-generation Polo-based Polo Vivo as the best-selling passenger car in South Africa. During May 2018, 1,979 examples of the latest Polo found new homes in South Africa, beating the Polo Vivo by a mere 75 units. The Polo Vivo has been consistently top of the registrations chart since its introduction in 2010.
