UK Top Four Brands : 1965-84

Considering it came out in 1962, a stylish car in its day.

The only benefit of history is if you can learn something from it. That's my philosophy, although history teachers may say there is more to the subject than that. Anyway, the figures below reveal much about an important part of UK car sales.

After World War II, the UK quickly built up it's peacetime industries such as vehicle production. What became - and I call here - BL* (British Leyland) had become a very large car maker with many nameplates. Once great, it didn't take too long for the company to start struggling with substandard management and fractious workers. Underinvestment soon led to a fine range of cars becoming increasingly mediocre. So BL lost it's way and effectively handed the top spot to Ford. It went from around 40% share in the 1960s to under 20% by 1979.

Much the same occurred with Chrysler, who in the mid sixties were progressively taking over Rootes Group (Hillman, Humber etc.). They wanted to do what GM and Ford were doing in Europe so Rootes and France's Simca was the way to do that. The problem was although there were some good Hillman cars in the 1960s, like BL the managing of Chrysler Europe left much to be desired. It too handed third place in the UK to GM Vauxhall and eventually fell away quickly from 1980, Chrysler having sold out to Peugeot in 1978.

Ford UK was a steady brand through this time, with good, consistently successful cars. GM Vauxhall lost its way from the late '60s, but closer ties with Opel improved the product and by the '80s they benefited accordingly. Nissan has been a popular Japanese brand in the UK since its arrival and made the top four in the 1980s.

Below is the chart that reveals all that is discussed above. It has the top four selling brands in the UK, from left to right. The % figure is for the make that year. The extreme right % figure in the grey column is the share the top four had of the total market. The drop in that figure is another story. For sales, add three zeros.

Yr	1st	Sales	%	2nd	Sales	%	3rd	Sales	%	4th	Sales	%	%
1965	BL	475	41	Ford	289	25	Chry	131	11	GMV	130	11	89
1966	BL	462	42	Ford	262	24	Chry	123	11	GMV	117	11	89
1967	BL	438	38	Ford	280	25	GMV	146	13	Chry	135	12	87
1968	BL	435	38	Ford	301	26	GMV	145	13	Chry	113	10	87
1969	BL	377	39	Ford	264	27	GMV	113	12	Chry	93	10	88
1970	BL	398	37	Ford	286	27	Chry	113	10	GMV	108	10	84
1971	BL	498	39	Ford	241	19	GMV	138	11	Chry	135	11	79
1972	BL	529	32	Ford	402	25	Chry	154	9	GMV	147	9	75
1973	BL	512	31	Ford	376	23	Chry	162	10	GMV	133	8	71
1974	BL	401	32	Ford	288	23	Chry	114	9	GMV	92	7	71
1975	BL	356	30	Ford	259	22	GMV	88	7	Chry	79	7	66
1976	BL	342	27	Ford	325	25	GMV	115	9	Chry	72	6	66
1977	Ford	340	24	BL	313	24	GMV	121	9	Niss	82	6	65
1978	Ford	392	25	BL	361	23	GMV	131	8	Chry	113	7	63
1979	Ford	486	28	BL	327	19	Chry	119	7	GMV	112	7	61
1980	Ford	465	31	BL	270	18	GMV	109	7	Niss	92	6	62
1981	Ford	459	31	BL	279	19	GMV	108	7	Niss	88	6	63
1982	Ford	474	30	BL	268	17	GMV	174	11	Niss	93	6	65
1983	Ford	518	29	BL	326	18	GMV	250	14	Niss	105	6	67
1984	Ford	487	28	BL	312	18	GMV	270	15	Niss	106	6	67

*BL was founded in 1968. Sales from 65-67 are BMC (BMH) and Leyland combined.

To see the other two blogs in the series: 1985-2000, and 2001-2013.

Debuted in 1966. One of the best looking cars ever, in my opinion.