Revealed: Britain’s most popular used cars

It’s official – the Ford Fiesta remains the UK’s best-selling second-hand car, according to the final figures for 2020 released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Overall, the used car market was down 14.9% with 6,752,959 transactions, thanks to the pandemic, making 2020 the lowest performing year since 2012.

Alternatively fuelled vehicles bucked the trend, with 144,225 of these models sold during the year (up 5.2%), with their market share rising to 2.1%.

Used electric vehicle sales increased by 29.7% to 19,184, but still only a fraction of all activity at 0.3%. The market for hybrids rose by 4.7%, but demand for plug-in hybrids fell by 5%.

Superminis remained the most popular used car category with 2.2 million purchased in 2020 (32% of all transactions), while black was the favourite colour choice, followed by silver, blue, grey and white.

Top 10 used cars of 2020

1. Ford Fiesta – 289,847
2. Vauxhall Corsa – 244,602
3. Ford Focus – 242,233
4. Volkswagen Golf – 224,146
5. Vauxhall Astra – 196,034
6. BMW 3 Series – 162,593
7. MINI – 152,302
8. Volkswagen Polo – 132,349
9. Mercedes-Benz C-Class – 108,745
10. Audi A3 – 108,006