Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The United Kingdom - January 2012

Above: The 3-door Audi A3, 
a car not sold in North America

The UK new car market enjoyed a very slight burst of optimism in January 2012 as volume increased 0.03% compared with January 2012. In terms of Britain's favourite vehicles, however, many were significantly less popular this year than last. 

The United Kingdom's best-selling car in January was the Ford Fiesta, and it certainly was not less popular this year than last.

This strange downward fluctuations aren't such a strange occurrence in the United Kingdom new vehicle market. Volume is small and thus prone to serious swings. Nevertheless, the vehicles ranked second through sixth on this list of the UK's ten best-selling cars - and that's half the list - posted year-over-year declines averaging 15%. Collectively, those five vehicles reported a 17.3% drop. 

Considering the 21% decline reported by GM's Vauxhall brand in January 2012, we shouldn't be surprised to see that the company's two best-selling nameplates fell 17% and 26%. But Volkswagen's best-selling car, the Golf, was down 3% even as the VW brand climbed 5%. Meanwhile, January 2011's best-selling car, the Ford Focus, lost its crown to 2011's best-selling car, the Ford Fiesta, as Focus sales slid 26% and Fiesta sales soared 34%.

GoodCarBadCar.net does not possess an in-house UK auto market expert, so we'll leave you to the numbers. One interesting fact: 53.7% of all new vehicles sold were fitted with diesel engines, up from 50.5% in January 2011. Check out brand-by-brand rankings for the UK car market's January 2012 performance here. For now, check out the top 10 best-selling cars in the United Kingdom for January 2012 before examining, for context's sake, previous versions through the links below the table.

Rank	Best-Selling Car	January 2012	% Change
#1	Ford Fiesta	7824	+ 33.9%
#2	Ford Focus	5643	- 25.6%
#3	Volkswagen Golf	3992	- 2.9%
#4	Vauxhall Corsa	3624	- 16.9%
#5	Vauxhall Astra	3340	- 25.9%
#6	Volkswagen Polo	2898	- 3.7%
#7	Vauxhall Insignia	2719	+ 21.6%
#8	Nissan Qashqai	2627	+ 24.6%
#9	Audi A3	2380	n/a
#10	Peugeot 207	2364	+ 8.9%

Source: Manufacturers, MTI & SMMT
Red font indicates year-over-year declining sales

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - February 2012
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - 2011 Year End
UK Auto Sales By Brand - January 2012
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - December 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - January 2011
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America -  January 2012