The Vauxhall Corsa has taken an early lead in the race to be 2021’s most popular car after coming out on top in January’s best-sellers list.
The supermini notched up 3,078 registrations while its perennial arch-rival, the Ford Fiesta, finished in fourth place with 2,594.
Between the two rival superminis were the Kia Sportage in second place with 2,986 registrations and the Nissan Qashqai with 2,835.
Following the Fiesta in fifth place was the Volvo XC40 (2,201), Mercedes-Benz A-Class (1,859), Volkswagen Golf (1,779), Ford Puma (1,760) and the Kia Niro (1,741) in ninth place.
Rounding off the top 10 was the the Ford Focus with 1,686 units registered – a surprise after the Fiesta and Focus are usually vying for places higher up the chart.
The slightly poorer performance from the two blue oval badged cars was reflected in the overall sales charts, too.
Ford registered 8,706 cars in January – a figure that’s down by nearly 47 per cent compared on the same month last year.
Vauxhall, meanwhile, experienced a smaller decline of minus 39.5 per cent.
The two volume brands fared much better than some manufacturers, however, as January’s market as a whole was down by nearly 40 per cent.
The biggest faller in January was Fiat with a near 76 per cent decline compared to the same month last year.
Other notable declines were Jaguar (-60.69 per cent), Honda (-69.59 per cent), Alfa Romeo (-58.42 per cent), DS (-61.75 per cent), Mazda (-63.06) and Jeep (-65.04).
Even MG, which consistently smashed records in 2020, saw a decline of 25.57 per cent.
January’s winners were Smart (+236 per cent) and Porsche (+43.82 per cent).
