06 March 2015

Germany / UK Mainstream Brand Comparison 2014

A nice car but not for Germany

It is an interesting comparison, the two largest Western European markets. German passenger car sales are 1.23 sales for each car sold in the UK, which is nearly a quarter bigger. I use that ratio to see which brands are more popular in either country. Data comes from the KBA and SMMT.

Looking at the chart below, pale blue shows which mainstream models are more popular in the UK and yellow Germany. Lada doesn't make it to the UK and MG to Germany so they miss out. Both Honda and Nissan are over twice as popular in the UK, despite it being the smaller market. The PSA twins are also more accepted in the UK, while Renault is in Germany. It is unsurprising that Ford and GM Opel/Vauxhall are preferred in Britain while Germanic VW and VW owned Škoda and SEAT are clearly more desired on home soil. Dacia was only introduced into the UK during 2013 so not as established there.


Brand Ger UK Diff

Honda 22,498 53,544 0.42

Nissan 62,536 138,338 0.45

Peugeot 54,096 103,566 0.52

Citroën 52,003 83,397 0.62

Ford 209,131 326,643 0.64

Kia 53,546 77,525 0.69

Ssangyong 1,082 1,542 0.70

Suzuki 27,835 37,395 0.74

Toyota 70,267 94,012 0.75

Opel/Vaux 219,084 269,177 0.81

Fiat 68,103 68,804 0.99

Hyundai 99,820 81,986 1.22

Mazda 52,491 37,784 1.39

Mitsubishi 24,131 15,805 1.53

Renault 105,322 66,334 1.59

Seat 93,129 53,512 1.74

Chrysler 10,519 5,891 1.79

Chevrolet 5,516 2,774 1.99

Dacia 48,907 23,862 2.05

Subaru 6,218 2,793 2.23

Škoda 173,583 75,488 2.30

VW 656,494 214,828 3.06

smart 22,408 4,342 5.16

Nein, we want the Golf

5 comments:

  1. interesting comparison! - it looks that germans prefer cars that are nice to drive (mazda, subaru...), whreas britains prefer cars without individuality (toyota, nissan, vauxhall).

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Where are Audi, Jaguar, Mercedes, Tesla, Land Rover?

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  4. Hi Lukasz, The premium brands came on another article which you probably realised after posting. Perhaps I should have mentioned that in the article.

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  5. Hi Anon, Interesting comment on why some cars are more popular. I think the Nissan Qashqai and Juke have individuality. Is the Subaru 4WD the appeal for Germany with more snow? Maybe a German reader could add to that.

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