UK Top 20 Models : 1985-89

In 1985, the Top 10 took over half the total sales, but never again would they have so much. For this five year period less changes took place when it came to model ranking. Top 10 figures are coloured brown and few changes can be observed.

For the first time, all Top 5 spots were taken by US brands, reflective of the retrenchment of Rover. The Escort ended eight years of being the best selling model in 1989. Ford had the top three places and four of the eight best selling models. GM's Vauxhall had three of the top seven. The Rover Group had three and all at the lower end of the Top 10.

Despite the steadily improving success of the Rover 200, it wasn't selling as well as previous cars from that firm. Peugeot got its first model into the Top 10 (the 205), albeit for just one year. Further down, European and Japanese brands were now dominating in the 10 to 20 area of the market.

	Model	1989	1988	1987	1986	1985
1	Ford Escort	181,218	172,706	178,001	156,895	157,269
2	Ford Sierra	175,911	162,684	139,878	113,861	101,642
3	Ford Fiesta	149,358	144,991	153,453	143,712	124,143
4	Vauxhall Cavalier	130,615	96,462	98,490	113,475	134,334
5	Vauxhall Astra	115,294	98,086	88,637	80,067	76,553
6	Austin/MG Metro	99,373	116,811	108,223	109,351	118,817
7	Vauxhall Nova	71,047	56,937	42,659	48,465	61,358
8	Ford Orion	68,598	67,713	69,262	55,255	65,363
9	Rover 200	64,046	58,890	50,254	45,197	43,669
10	Austin/MG Montego	57,835	63,649	56,238	62,658	57,527
11	VW Golf	56,055	51,381	40,543	35,773	31,145
12	Nissan Micra	54,175	52,143	38,825	33,609	28,181
13	Peugeot 205	52,470	54,147	49,127	39,188	30,842
14	Peugeot 405	47,834
15	Nissan Bluebird	41,636	41,775	31,982
16	Citroen BX	38,658	36,134
17	Nissan Sunny	36,685		38,800		28,700
18	Austin/MG Maestro	36,535	43,982	43,815	51,465	73,955
19	Peugoet 309	35,804	35,524	42,691	28,257
20	Ford Granada	33,519	35,524	35,091	37,401	26,057
	Volvo 300		43,452	39,032	39,407	35,558
	Fiat Uno		40,708	38,801	31,099	25,901
	VW Polo				32,791	31,489
	Renault 5				28,570	27,338
	Top 10	1,113,295	1,038,929	991,563	935,204	970,961
	% of Total	48.4	46.9	49.2	46.4	53.0
	Total	2,300,944	2,215,574	2,013,693	2,013,693	1,832,408

Data source: SMMT.

Other years in the series:
65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, 90-94, 95-99, 00-04, 05-09, 10-14.