UK Car Sales By Brand : 1985-89

As the economy picked up, so did car sales.

A big hit in the UK

Local: Ford and Vauxhall took full advantage of the upswing, while BLMC changed to Rover as it struggled along. The Fiesta, Escort and Sierra were usually 1-2-3 in this period. The Astra/Cavalier were very successful for GM Vauxhall. While the Metro/200/Montego were holding up, they were unable to push Rover up.

A quality car which was probably underrated in the UK

Imports: When Talbot came under Peugeot, it really did wonders for the brand. The 205 even made 10th in 1987.  Nissan had the Micra and Bluebird models commence UK assembly and both sold quite well. The Golf was the main seller for VW, making it to 11th in 1989.

85	86	87	88	89	Make	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
1	1	1	1	1	Ford	485,620	515,367	580,119	583,790	608,617
3	3	3	3	2	Vauxhall	295,361	279,615	270,778	303,565	349,901
2	2	2	2	3	Rover	324,574	293,240	296,784	324,632	304,522
9	6	5	5	4	Peugeot	44,849	80,667	101,264	126,825	138,958
4	4	4	4	5	Nissan	105,517	109,914	114,243	134,724	138,437
5	5	6	6	6	Volkswagen	83,888	99,957	91,294	102,210	108,778
6	7	7	7	7	Renault	70,622	69,261	78,694	85,592	88,111
7	8	8	8	8	Volvo	59,549	68,972	70,880	80,427	81,706
8	9	9	9	9	Fiat	54,460	61,729	68,576	75,113	70,173
13	12	10	10	10	Citroen	27,479	34,427	46,014	66,930	66,409
11	10	12	11	11	BMW	33,448	35,898	37,525	42,761	48,910
10	11	11	12	12	Toyota	34,722	35,802	38,269	39,853	42,408
16	15	15	15	13	Mercedes	18,086	19,987	21,752	23,896	28,335
18	14	13	13	14	Lada	15,314	20,312	25,294	30,728	28,061
15	13	14	14	15	Honda	18,984	20,499	24,743	26,714	27,016
17	17	16	16	16	Mazda	17,172	17,982	18,817	21,005	22,722
14	16	17	17	17	Audi	19,989	19,280	16,829	18,585	18,966
23	22	20	19	18	Jaguar	8,049	7,579	11,102	14,504	14,243
20	18	18	18	19	Skoda	9,884	12,775	14,543	15,798	13,606
21	20	21	22	20	Saab	8,375	10,331	10,411	10,881	12,105
19	19	19	20	21	Mitsubishi	11,589	11,811	11,828	12,397	10,831
	24	24	23	22	Seat	405	5,917	8,085	9,445	10,286
26	23	22	21	23	Hyundai	5,159	7,495	9,145	11,385	8,602
24	21	23	24	24	Zastava	7,953	8,525	8,458	8,750	7,903
30	29	26	25	25	Land Rover	3,381	4,226	5,027	8,175	7,784
				26	Proton					6,555
28	28	25	27	27	Suzuki	3,950	4,288	5,612	5,705	5,988
29	30	27	28	28	Subaru	3,815	3,974	4,960	4,977	4,880
25	27	28	26	29	FSO	6,158	4,558	4,851	5,827	4,823
27	25	29	30	30	Daihatsu	4,567	5,345	4,580	3,838	4,303
31	32	33	31	31	Alfa Romeo	3,093	2,233	2,303	3,594	4,111
	36	32	32	32	Isuzu		220	2,346	3,454	2,924
		31	33	33	Porsche			2,793	3,032	3,339
32	31	30	29	34	Lancia	3,077	3,386	3,439	4,072	3,201
33	33	34	34	35	RR/Bentley	710	808	842	881	1,009
35	34	35	35	36	Lotus	554	447	471	572	552
34	35	36	37		Reliant	625	303	185	110
12					Talbot	28,986	see Peu
22	26				Opel	8,102	4,896
					Others	4,342	448	837	827	1,769
					Total	1,832,408	1,882,474	2,013,693	2,215,574	2,300,844

Data source: SMMT