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

Time 9:49 am, January 18, 2021

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.

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‘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
James Baggott's avatar

James is the founder and editor-in-chief of Car Dealer Magazine, and CEO of parent company Baize Group. James has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years writing about cars and the car industry.



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