30 December 2015

UK Top 20 Models : 1980-84

The roomy, stylish and frugal Maestro, but reliability was not the best

The tittle is almost right, 1980 is a Top 14. Any Top 10 placing is highlighted in brown. The data is as accurate as I can get it but if anyone can assist with 1980, just let me know.

There were many changes in this five year period. The Cortina became the Sierra and the latter didn't do as well. The Vauxhall Chevette went and both the Nova and Astra models came in for GM. The curtain fell on the Austin Allegro, Ambassador and the terrible Ital, with the Metro, Maestro and Montego models arriving.

We can see that British Leyland was now struggling with only two models in the Top 10 in 1984. That was the first time as far as any records I have. In 1982, the Mini was no longer in the Top 10 for the first time since the early 1960's. The Renault 18 and then the Volvo 300 Series were the first European models making the Top 10. More Euro models were establishing themselves.

The Vauxhall Cavalier was building sales nicely and was outselling Ford's equivalent model, the Sierra. Meanwhile, for the Blue Oval, the Fiesta took its time but was now proving very popular. The Ford Orion model was in some ways an Escort with a boot, but classed as a different model. Large cars were all but finished and the Ford Granada was only a shadow of its former self.


Model 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980
1 Ford Escort 157,340 174,190 166,942 141,081 122,357
2 Vauxhall Cavalier 132,149 127,509 100,081 33,631 41,119
3 Ford Fiesta 125,851 119,602 110,165 110,753 91,661
4 Austin/MG Metro 117,442 137,303 114,550 110,283
5 Ford Cortina/Sierra 113,071 170,717 135,745 159,804 190,281
6 Austin/MG Maestro 83,072 65,328


7 Vauxhall Astra 56,511 62,570 46,412 30,845
8 Vauxhall Nova 55,442 24,995


9 Ford Orion 51,026



10 Volvo 300 35,034 36,753 30,412 23,775







11 Aust/MG Montego 34,728



12 VW Polo 31,345 32,706 23,655

13 Datsun Sunny 31,112 36,781 28,744 25,737 30,954
14 Datsun Cherry 27,466 29,229 28,117 32,874 30,929
15 VW Golf 24,250 25,764 26,311 26,413
16 Austin/Morris Mini 23,329 27,739 25,503 28,772 61,129
17 Ford Granada 23,215 24,076 28,590 25,214 29,093
18 Fiat Uno 20,915



19 Datsun Micra 20,789



20 Renault 11 20,394



Triumph Acclaim
38,406 42,188

Ford Capri
22,254
22,289 31,187
Rover SD1
21,587 24,420 21,504
Volvo 200
21,381 20,518 20,778
Talbot Samba
20,105


Aust Ambassador

24,678

Vauxhall Chevette

23,842 36,838 46,059
Morris Marina/Ital

23,228 48,490 59,906
Datsun Stanza

20,030

Renault 5


25,390 28,160
Renault 18


21,117 30,958
Austin Allegro


20,753 39,612
Top 10 619,053 646,839 619,058 722,854 777,415
% of Total 51.8 50.3 46.8 45.4 45.3
Total 1,194,130 1,285,583 1,323,524 1,591,939 1,716,275

Data source: SMMT.

Other years in the series:
65-6970-7475-7985-8990-9495-9900-0405-0910-14.

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