UK Car Sales By Brand : 1980-84

This was a time of change in the UK, with a recession in 1981. Car sales hit a low that has not been seen since. Out of that sales soon picked up though.

The Mk II Cavalier went well in the UK.

Local: Ford was well ahead while Vauxhall was taking off and closing in on British Leyland. The Cavalier model got to number two on the charts in 1984 and 85, behind the Escort. The Astra took over from the Chevette also. BL in this period switched from the Mini, Allegro and Marina to the Metro, Maestro and latterly the Montego as their best selling cars. Land Rover sold it's Defenders as commercial cars, so it was just the Range Rover representing that brand at the time.

Imports: The Cherry and Sunny models were strong for Nissan, as was the Volvo 300. The VW Golf and Polo were not able to penetrate the top ten, but were selling well. Renault benefited from the 5, but when that finished, sales fell away as you can see below.

80	81	82	83	84	Make	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984
1	1	1	1	1	Ford	464,706	459,365	474,192	518,048	486,971
2	2	2	2	2	BLMC	269,878	279,383	267,602	325,656	312,054
3	3	3	3	3	Vauxhall	109,218	107,572	174,183	250,409	270,437
4	4	4	4	4	Nissan	91,893	88,209	93,213	104,684	106,360
7	7	5	5	5	Volkswagen	55,189	65,123	74,157	81,490	76,892
6	5	6	6	6	Renault	88,343	72,041	64,147	62,923	59,779
9	9	8	7	7	Volvo	38,283	44,558	51,707	61,250	59,072
8	8	9	9	8	Fiat	45,267	55,505	43,638	46,254	47,563
12	13	13	13	9	Peugeot	24,333	17,805	19,636	21,342	45,628
10	11	10	10	10	Toyota	34,167	23,405	27,590	31,683	32,702
16	14	12	12	11	BMW	13,451	17,086	22,977	25,178	25,785
5	6	7	8	12	Talbot	90,874	68,048	56,149	58,153	24,891
11	10	11	11	13	Citroen	27,006	27,395	24,149	25,751	24,562
17	18	14	14	14	Audi	13,096	15,098	18,277	19,235	19,711
14	15	16	16	15	Honda	22,760	15,774	16,333	18,986	18,916
15	16	17	17	16	Mazda	15,370	15,594	15,139	17,638	17,505
18	17	15	15	17	Lada	13,043	15,508	16,752	19,225	15,033
21	20	18	18	18	Mercedes	8,876	10,667	12,164	13,506	14,437
13	12	23	20	19	Opel	22,870	18,796	7,278	9,678	12,371
23	22	20	19	20	Skoda	7,906	8,507	9,272	11,059	11,023
19	19	22	22	21	Mitsubishi	10,273	11,209	8,640	9,148	10,559
22	21	19	21	22	Saab	8,073	9,461	9,474	9,490	8,835
25	25	24	24	23	Jaguar	5,920	5,688	6,440	7,069	7,544
	31	28	26	24	Zastava		811	3,101	4,634	6,190
26	29	27	27	25	FSO	3,989	2,329	3,105	4,439	5,419
		29	30	26	Hyundai			2,993	3,412	4,989
28	28	26	25	27	Daihatsu	1,355	3,059	4,743	5,198	4,779
20	23	21	23	28	Alfa Romeo	10,219	8,030	8,928	7,763	4,266
27	26	31	29	29	Subaru	3,252	3,312	2,700	3,627	3,673
30	29	30	31	30	Suzuki	1,116	2,533	2,763	3,356	3,391
	27	32	32	31	Land Rover	see BL	3,218	2,696	2,991	3,089
24	24	25	29	32	Lancia	6,032	6,472	5,170	3,461	2,639
29	31	33	33	33	RR/Bentley	1,315	1,218	805	633	630
32	33	34	34	34	Lotus	348	325	410	383	547
34	36	36	35	35	Panther	95	42	26	119	238
31	34	35	36	36	Reliant	682	308	114	93	105
					Others	4,463	1,259	4,364	3,735	1,062
					Total	1,513,661	1,484,713	1,555,027	1,791,699	1,749,647

The Acclaim proved popular and reliable

The BL figures above exclude Jaguar and Land Rover but have been added here. The Triumph Acclaim (based on a Honda) lifted that make as it got as high as 7th in 1982, but was quickly pulled. It came after the Dolomite ended and was only intended to fill a gap until the Maestro/Montego/200 models came along. It was very reliable and a shame it was of short duration. Few were exported.

Aus/Mor/MG	225,715	240,917	199,173	262,609	264,887
Rover	26,761	23,898	23,898	24,578	36,705
Triumph	17,401	14,568	44,531	38,469	10,462
Jaguar	5,920	5,688	6,440	7,069	7,544
Land Rover		3,218	2,696	2,991	3,089
Total	275,797	288,289	276,738	335,716	322,687