UK Car Sales By Brand : 1970-74

This was a time of consolidation by import makes as they all had gains in this period while the top 4 UK car makers went nowhere. I did hear that at the time brands such as Ford cut all their smaller dealers, effectively handing them over to import brands. That got them a foothold, which they built on. I'm not sure how true that was.

Local car makers: During this five year time frame, the Ford Cortina took over from the BL 1100/1300 at the best selling car. The Morris Marina came along and got to 2nd in 1973, but couldn't quite get to the top. The Cortina was ably backed up by the Escort. Hillman had success with the Avenger and Hunter models. Vauxhall relied on the Viva as it's lone top 10 car. The Austin Maxi was a top 10 car at the time too.

The Ford Cortina was winning over the UK

Imported car makers: Datsun (Nissan) was a big winner, coming from obscurity to 5th. The Sunny and Cherry models both made the top 20 in 1974. German brands were not that strong then, with Volvo the best of the premium brands.

70	71	72	73	74	Brand	1970		1971		1972		1973		1974
1	1	1	1	1	BLMC	398,281		498,306		528,694		512,350		400,898
2	2	2	2	2	Ford	285,720		240,937		401,994		376,213		288,394
3	4	3	3	3	Chrysler	112,590		135,229		153,765		161,656		114,121
4	3	4	4	4	Vauxhall	107,560		138,199		147,172		132,980		92,316
	15	9	6	5	Datsun			6,852		30,197		60,513		58,758
6	6	5	5	6	Renault	31,159		41,732		60,242		67,071		57,126
7	7	7	7	7	Fiat	23,476		36,205		47,606		50,687		43,609
5	5	6	8	8	VW	37,371		48,883		52,686		42,871		38,882
11	8	8	9	9	Simca	7,854		24,243		34,121		28,777		23,446
9	9	10	10	10	Volvo	10,471		15,476		19,911		22,828		17,708

BL again doesn't have Jaguar included, and what was is shown below:

	Brand	1970		1971		1972		1973		1974
	Austin / Morris	296,828		366,877		391,556		384,256		302,689
	Triumph	64,036		86,533		91,928		90,712		69,224
	Rover	25,223		31,508		30,035		23,627		18,488
	MG	12,194		13,388		15,175		13,755		9,852
	Unsure									645
	Total	398,281		498,306		528,694		512,350		400,898

Data source: SMMT.