9:00 am, March 7, 2013
FORD’S Focus has jumped its younger sibling the Fiesta to make the most popular selling car in February 2013.
The Focus racked up 3,853 registrations in February, while the Fiesta managed a similar 3,655. Third in the list was Vauxhall’s Corsa at 3,214 registrations, followed by Volkswagen’s Golf at 2,413.
The Vauxhall Astra, Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen Polo followed – at 2,181, 1856 and 1,437 registrations respectively – while the Peugeot 208, Mercedes-Benz C Class and Nissan Juke finished the list with 1,423, 1,317 and 1,106 registrations respectively.
Year-to-date, however, the Fiesta remains the top seller with 11,561 units registered, while the Focus racked up 9,647. Vauxhall’s Corsa and Astra followed with 8,392 and 7,643 units respectively, while the Nissan Qashqai remains a top seller in fifth place with 6,136 registrations.
Next was the Volkswagen Golf with 5,748 units registered, the Peugeot 208 with 4,382, the Volkswagen Polo with 4,332, and the Mercedes-Benz C Class with 3,673. The Nissan Juke finishes the line-up with 3,628 registrations.
The ‘mini’ segment, housing cars like the Citroen C1 and Ford Ka, saw the largest boom across segments in February – rising 135.7 per cent in the month. Registrations of ‘supermini’ segment cars meanwhile were as strong as ever – making up 35.6 per cent of the volumes registered in February.
Petrol-powered models also saw a boost of 20.5 per cent on last year – something the SMMT says is likely to have been helped by the demand for the ‘mini’ segment, where petrol engines are more common.
Alternative-fuelled vehicles, meanwhile, saw an even bigger jump – 26.6 per cent higher than February 2012, with 837 AFVs registered in the month alone.
Fleet registrations remained down, however – dropping 4.4 per cent against last year’s figure – while those registered for business saw a not dissimilar drop of 1.4 per cent.
