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

After a one-month break in which its big brother took over as Britain's best-selling car, the Ford Fiesta was back on top in March 2012. Focus sales rose 5% year-over-year, but the Fiesta's growth from 19,676 units in March 2011 to 22,667 was more than enough to fend off the Focus and the better-selling Vauxhall Corsa. Together, the Fiesta and Focus accounted for seven out of every ten Fords sold in the United Kingdom in March. In the first quarter of 2012, 10% of all new vehicles sold in the UK were either Fiestas or Foci.

Along with the Corsa, one other Vauxhall belonged in the top 10 last month, though Astra sales suffered a 7% drop compared with March 2011. Two Volkswagens, the Polo and more popular Golf, landed in seventh and fourth, respectively. Nissan's Qashqai, pictured above, flew up the rankings from tenth to sixth with 47% gains. Qashqai sales are up 35% this year. The Peugeot 207, BMW 3-Series, and surprisingly successful Toyota Yaris filled in the remaining three spots. 

GoodCarBadCar will publish a full brand-by-brand rundown for UK auto sales in March soon; for now we offer this simple Easter interruption for the Sales Stats obsessed. Ford was the UK's top-selling brand, nonetheless, and Audi expanded its year-to-date lead over BMW to nearly 6000 registrations. March is traditionally a wildly lucrative time of year for new car dealerships in the United Kingdom. The third month of 2012 did not break with tradition: 66% of the first quarter's volume stemmed from March sales. 

The 10 best-selling cars in the United Kingdom from March 2012 are in the table below; pertinent links are clickable at the bottom of this post.

Rank	Best-Selling Car	March 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
#1	Ford Fiesta	22,667	+ 15.2%	33,390	+ 19.6%
#2	Vauxhall Corsa	17,271	+ 27.4%	23,750	+ 15.7%
#3	Ford Focus	15,086	+ 5.0%	24,442	+ 0.03%
#4	Volkswagen Golf	11,945	+ 16.2%	18,794	+ 9.9%
#5	Vauxhall Astra	9965	- 6.9%	14,894	- 13.7%
#6	Nissan Qashqai	8487	+ 46.9%	12,491	+ 35.0%
#7	Volkswagen Polo	7748	+ 1.5%	12,164	- 0.4%
#8	Toyota Yaris	6973	n/a	9126	n/a
#9	Peugeot 207	6948	- 3.4%	10,221	- 1.1%
#10	BMW 3-Series	6472	+ 6.0%	9579	- 5.5%

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

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