11:16 am, March 4, 2021
The Ford Fiesta was the best-selling car in February but it still trails the Vauxhall Corsa in year-to-date, new figures show.
Ford registered 1,645 Fiestas in the month, according to data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), putting the supermini back in familiar territory at the top of the table.
In January, the Ford Fiesta finished in fourth place in a month that saw more cars sold overall.
Following the Fiesta was the Corsa with 1,408 registrations and the Nissan Qashqai with 1,321.
Behind the top three was the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (1,298), Volvo XC40 (1,251), Kia Niro (1,215), Volkswagen T-Roc (1,031), Volkswagen Tiguan (1,011), the Ford Kuga (960) and the Ford Focus rounded off the top 10 with 945 registrations.
In the year-to-date figures, the Corsa still ranks in first place, however, with 4,486 finding homes so far in 2021, followed by the Fiesta (4,239), Qashqai (4,156), Sportage (37,51) and the Volvo XC40 (3,452).
No manufacturer posted gains in February with either flat or negative values posted. Heading the losses was SsangYong with sales down 78 per cent followed by Alfa Romeo (-73.21 per cent ) and Honda (-72.48).
February as a whole saw registrations slide by over 35 per cent, making February 2021 the worst since 1959.
The SMMT has now revised its market outlook to 1.83m new car registrations in 2021 – down from the 1.89m predicted in January – with most of the losses expected to occur in March.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘February is traditionally a small month for car registrations and with showrooms closed for the duration, the decline is deeply disappointing but expected.
‘Although we have a pathway out of restrictions with rapid vaccine roll-out, and proven experience in operating click-and-collect, it is essential that showrooms reopen as soon as possible so the industry can start to build back better, and recover the £23bn loss from the past year.’
