Exclusive: The top 50 most searched for used cars on Auto Trader in 2020 – find out what made the list

Auto Trader has exclusively revealed to Car Dealer the Top 50 most searched for cars on its platforms in 2020.

In first place, with an incredible 487m searches and 19.6m advert views was the perennial Volkswagen Golf.

It comfortably took the top spot, appearing in 109m more searches during the year than the second placed Mercedes C Class.

The Merc clocked up 378m searches and 15.4m advert views, while in third place was the BMW 3 Series, which appeared in 337m search results and had 15.1m advert views.

The disparity in the number of searches and advert views is because of the different ways people can search on Auto Trader and how they are counted by the classified ad firm.

A spokesman explaoined: ‘The searches are the number of times models may have appeared in a result. For example, a 1 Series would come up in searches for “BMW”, “hatchback”, “silver” etc, where as an advert view would be someone specifically looking at a 1 Series, so a more accurate picture of desirability.’

In total, the top 50 cars in the list racked up 7.3 BILLION searches during 2020 – a year in which used car prices and the market went crazy, following an increase in demand from buyers.

Auto Trader’s Ian Plummer said: ‘2020 saw a growing interest in car ownership and the desire to buy a new or used car. 

‘This is partly affected by a growing sense of wanting personal space, and we can see our audience are using that as a key driver for car ownership.

‘There’s also evidence that people enjoy driving and enjoy owning a car – especially millennials.’

But what else made the list of the most searched for cars in 2020? We reveal the full table below exclusively for Car Dealer members.

This list is reserved for members of the Car Dealer website and to get access to the list you need to log in with your name and email address, or log in via a social media account. 

	Make	Model	Search Views	Ad Views
1	Volkswagen	Golf	487,804,591	19,615,730
2	Mercedes-Benz	C Class	378,092,165	15,479,471
3	BMW	3 Series	337,984,802	15,154,097
4	Ford	Focus	302,689,400	11,462,533
5	Mercedes-Benz	E Class	297,342,303	13,117,112
6	Ford	Fiesta	294,546,906	9,319,386
7	Mercedes-Benz	A Class	263,442,565	10,911,743
8	BMW	1 Series	221,103,537	10,238,566
9	Volkswagen	Polo	186,933,045	6,386,745
10	Land Rover	Range Rover Sport	186,011,595	7,108,501
11	Audi	A3	181,281,139	7,611,163
12	MINI	Hatch	169,538,627	6,934,498
13	Vauxhall	Corsa	169,523,167	4,120,907
14	BMW	5 Series	168,518,825	7,664,760
15	Land Rover	Range Rover Evoque	161,951,153	6,074,129
16	Land Rover	Range Rover	148,142,095	5,346,108
17	Nissan	Qashqai	141,204,562	4,311,058
18	Volkswagen	Tiguan	135,156,540	5,347,555
19	Mercedes-Benz	GLC Class	132,435,498	6,139,152
20	Vauxhall	Astra	130,633,654	3,684,963
21	SEAT	Leon	126,334,000	5,670,432
22	BMW	X5	123,969,613	5,788,361
23	Porsche	911	123,099,501	5,900,838
24	Ford	Kuga	121,122,214	4,477,187
25	Land Rover	Discovery Sport	118,798,688	4,252,426
26	Audi	A1	118,430,438	4,178,175
27	Honda	Civic	115,615,750	4,504,139
28	SKODA	Octavia	110,855,275	4,404,720
29	Toyota	Yaris	110,797,564	2,315,232
30	Audi	Q3	108,965,185	4,269,850
31	Nissan	Juke	103,394,154	2,561,784
32	Audi	A5	97,418,459	4,548,929
33	Volvo	XC60	95,654,277	3,694,576
34	Kia	Sportage	95,537,193	3,157,694
35	Audi	Q5	92,811,687	3,750,340
36	Mercedes-Benz	GLE Class	92,760,597	3,884,651
37	Mercedes-Benz	CLA Class	88,591,240	4,504,244
38	BMW	4 Series	88,550,794	4,088,001
39	Jaguar	F-PACE	87,497,655	3,522,194
40	Toyota	AYGO	86,143,362	1,442,109
41	Fiat	500	83,905,676	1,992,759
42	Volvo	XC90	81,543,752	3,016,517
43	Renault	Clio	80,279,264	2,151,237
44	Volkswagen	Passat	78,994,191	3,296,777
45	Land Rover	Discovery	78,669,960	2,638,157
46	Honda	CR-V	78,106,995	2,781,094
47	Audi	S3	77,441,061	3,610,355
48	Land Rover	Range Rover Velar	76,951,191	3,015,476
49	Mercedes-Benz	GLA Class	76,031,650	3,303,911
50	Audi	A4	75,401,288	3,538,121