UK Top 20 Models : 1980-84

The roomy, stylish and frugal Maestro, but reliability was not the best

The tittle is almost right, 1980 is a Top 14. Any Top 10 placing is highlighted in brown. The data is as accurate as I can get it but if anyone can assist with 1980, just let me know.

There were many changes in this five year period. The Cortina became the Sierra and the latter didn't do as well. The Vauxhall Chevette went and both the Nova and Astra models came in for GM. The curtain fell on the Austin Allegro, Ambassador and the terrible Ital, with the Metro, Maestro and Montego models arriving.

We can see that British Leyland was now struggling with only two models in the Top 10 in 1984. That was the first time as far as any records I have. In 1982, the Mini was no longer in the Top 10 for the first time since the early 1960's. The Renault 18 and then the Volvo 300 Series were the first European models making the Top 10. More Euro models were establishing themselves.

The Vauxhall Cavalier was building sales nicely and was outselling Ford's equivalent model, the Sierra. Meanwhile, for the Blue Oval, the Fiesta took its time but was now proving very popular. The Ford Orion model was in some ways an Escort with a boot, but classed as a different model. Large cars were all but finished and the Ford Granada was only a shadow of its former self.

	Model	1984	1983	1982	1981	1980
1	Ford Escort	157,340	174,190	166,942	141,081	122,357
2	Vauxhall Cavalier	132,149	127,509	100,081	33,631	41,119
3	Ford Fiesta	125,851	119,602	110,165	110,753	91,661
4	Austin/MG Metro	117,442	137,303	114,550	110,283
5	Ford Cortina/Sierra	113,071	170,717	135,745	159,804	190,281
6	Austin/MG Maestro	83,072	65,328
7	Vauxhall Astra	56,511	62,570	46,412	30,845
8	Vauxhall Nova	55,442	24,995
9	Ford Orion	51,026
10	Volvo 300	35,034	36,753	30,412	23,775

11	Aust/MG Montego	34,728
12	VW Polo	31,345	32,706	23,655
13	Datsun Sunny	31,112	36,781	28,744	25,737	30,954
14	Datsun Cherry	27,466	29,229	28,117	32,874	30,929
15	VW Golf	24,250	25,764	26,311	26,413
16	Austin/Morris Mini	23,329	27,739	25,503	28,772	61,129
17	Ford Granada	23,215	24,076	28,590	25,214	29,093
18	Fiat Uno	20,915
19	Datsun Micra	20,789
20	Renault 11	20,394
	Triumph Acclaim		38,406	42,188
	Ford Capri		22,254		22,289	31,187
	Rover SD1		21,587	24,420	21,504
	Volvo 200		21,381	20,518	20,778
	Talbot Samba		20,105
	Aust Ambassador			24,678
	Vauxhall Chevette			23,842	36,838	46,059
	Morris Marina/Ital			23,228	48,490	59,906
	Datsun Stanza			20,030
	Renault 5				25,390	28,160
	Renault 18				21,117	30,958
	Austin Allegro				20,753	39,612
	Top 10	619,053	646,839	619,058	722,854	777,415
	% of Total	51.8	50.3	46.8	45.4	45.3
	Total	1,194,130	1,285,583	1,323,524	1,591,939	1,716,275

Data source: SMMT.

Other years in the series:
65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 85-89, 90-94, 95-99, 00-04, 05-09, 10-14.