Volkswagen Polo rounds off 2018 as the second most popular car in the UK
The Volkswagen Polo scored its highest most recent position in the UK’s most popular cars list in December 2018, jumping to second place with a total of 4,928 examples finding new homes. That’s a stark contrast to the first three months of the year when the Polo didn’t appear in the list at all, due to the changeover of the fifth-generation model to the sixth.
It’s all the more impressive when it comes to the final year standings: with 45,149 Polos moving off the forecourts, the small VW was the sixth most popular nameplate in the UK during 2018. That’s one place higher than in 2017, when, with 47,855 units registered, the Volkswagen supermini was the UK’s seventh most popular car. And one more thing to take note of is the fact that the Polo outsold all versions of the supposedly more premium and design-led Mini, proving that quiet style, high quality and a wide range with models for most budgets are still valid selling points for a good deal of drivers.
The Polo’s higher 2018 achievement with a lower number of units hints at the UK market as a whole. In general, the market fell by 6.8 per cent to 2,367,147 units after a turbulent 12 months. Demand for superminis and small cars also fell by 2.5 per cent, but along with ‘lower medium’ cars, still accounted for 58.7 per cent of the market.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT) December 2018 figures record the Ford Fiesta as the most popular car for another year, with 95,892 cars registered, a massive 31,063 more than the runner-up Volkswagen Golf. With a total of 5,719 units, the small Ford once again topped the chart in December, while 4,224 Golf registrations saw the evergreen VW drop to number six. The Vauxhall Corsa rounded out the top three in the year-to-date list, with 52,915 registrations.
The UK’s top 10 most popular cars during December 2018 and the final year-to-date (sales figure and position in brackets) were as follows:
1 Ford Fiesta: 5,719 (95,892, 1st)
2 Volkswagen Polo: 4,928 (45,149, 6th)
3 Mini: 4,650 (44,904, 7th)
4 Mercedes-Benz A-Class: 4,284 (43,257, 8th)
5 Vauxhall Corsa: 4,264 (52,915, 3rd)
6 Volkswagen Golf: 4,224 (64,829, 2nd)
7 Ford Focus: 3,919 (50,492, 5th)
8 Vauxhall Astra: 3,677
9 Ford Kuga: 2,646 (40,398, 9th)
10 Nissan Qashqai: 2,609 (50,546, 4th)
(The UK’s 2018 year-to-date top ten most popular car absent from December’s registration figures was the tenth-placed Kia Sportage with 35,567 registrations.)
Popular Polos
In December 2018, the sixth-generation Polo was once again the most popular car in South Africa with 2,051 cars registered With 1,771 units at new homes, the fifth-generation Polo-based Polo Vivo was, again, not for the first time, runner-up to both its newer and bigger brother.
