PoloDriver

The figures are out, and the good news is that the Polo is still a firm favourite with UK buyers. The March 2010 UK top 10 sales tallies show a 26.6% increase when compared to the same period last year and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) state that 397,383 new cars were registered last month – more than were expected, especially with the Government’s scrappage scheme coming to an end.

‘The UK motor industry has enjoyed a better than anticipated first quarter of 2010,’ says Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive. ‘A strong March performance was underpinned by the scrappage incentive and improving demand in the fleet sector. The coming months will remain challenging and headline registration numbers are expected to dip, but underlying demand will continue to improve slowly.’

The multi-award winning Polo sold well again last month, though dropped to ninth place overall in the sales rankings from seventh In February and fourth in January. Competitors such as the Peugeot 207 and Renault Clio sold more, but the Ford Fiesta was once again top of the supermini heap, selling almost three times that of the Polo. The UK’s best-selling cars for March 2010 are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 23,681 units
2 Ford Focus: 17,989 units
3 Vauxhall Astra: 15,326 units
4 Vauxhall Corsa: 15,088 units
5 Volkswagen Golf: 9976 units
6 Peugeot 207: 8926 units
7 Renault Clio: 8641 units
8 Mini: 7919 units
9 Volkswagen Polo: 7580 units
10 Renault Megané: 6247 units

The latest batch of UK figures come as the eagerly-awaited CrossPolo and Polo GTI models are shown in Germany for the first time at the AMI Leipzig 2010 motor show, alongside the new Volkswagen Touran.

The Polo has posted double-digit European sales gains in February 2010 compared to the same month in 2009 according to provider of automotive data and intelligence, JATO Dynamics. Along with the Fiat Punto and Renault Clio, the Polo bucked the trend seen by its larger stablemate the Golf, which has seen sales slip 4.0% in Europe over the same period. The majority of the dip is attributed to the German market, where the Golf’s sales figure’s are down by 9.4%. While the larger Volkswagen still dominates the European sales charts, the Ford Fiesta is catching up, only 4737 units behind.

The top 10 European best sellers in February 2010 were as follows:

1 Volkswagen Golf
2 Ford Fiesta
3 Renault Clio
4 Fiat Punto
5 Volkswagen Polo
6 Peugeot 207
7 Fiat Panda
8 Vauxhall Corsa
9 Renault Megane
10 Vauxhall Astra

Establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with last month by driving into the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars for January 2010, the Polo has repeated the feat for February. Released this week, the figures show that although the Polo slipped three places to number seven, its Golf stablemate actually improved its standing, rising to number three from six in the first month of the year.

While the Polo was still 1336 units clear of challenging its class rival Ford Fiesta for the top spot, it sold 301 units more than the eighth best-selling car, the BMW 3 Series. Rising for the eighth sequential month, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders state that the UK’s February’s sales were actually up 26.4%. The full list of what sold what is as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 3236 units
2 Ford Focus: 3035 units
3 Volkswagen Golf: 2586 units
4 Vauxhall Astra: 2524 units
5 Vauxhall Corsa: 2391 units
6 Hyundai i10: 1938 units
7 Volkswagen Polo: 1900 units
8 BMW 3 Series: 1599 units
9 Kia Picanto: 1573 units
10 Peugeot 207: 1422 units

These latest encouraging Polo sales figures come just as the German consumer magazine Guter Rat have awarded the Polo the Best Compact Car 2010 award.

It’s been absent for almost a year, but the Polo has charged back into Britain’s best-selling cars list to become one of the most-sold cars in the country. The first cars sales statistics for 2010 have been released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and the new Polo charts at number four for January, no doubt buoyed by the arrival of the three-door model in December 2009. The five-door version has been on sale since October.

Registrations rose by 29.8% in January, but it’s not just the Polo which has benefitted. Rivals such as the Vauxhall Corsa also did well, coming third (only just beating the Volkswagen), while the traditional mainstay of the best-sellers list, the Ford Fiesta, topped January’s chart, selling more than half the Polo’s volume again. Volkswagen UK reported an unprecedented demand for the new Polo when sales began last autumn with predictions up 83%, and that certainly seems to be transferring into purchases.

The new Polo is now the best-selling Volkswagen in the UK, even beating the Golf in the sales race, which is two places below at number six. With 1.2 TSI, 1.6 TDI 90, BlueMotion and GTI models all joining the new Polo family by the summer, we can see no reason why the impressive fifth-generation model won’t stay in the top sellers list for a long time to come. The SMMT’s best-selling cars for January 2010 are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 8885 units
2 Ford Focus: 6953 units
3 Vauxhall Corsa: 5788 units
4 Volkswagen Polo: 5707 units
5 Vauxhall Astra: 5075 units
6 Volkswagen Golf: 4388 units
7 Peugeot 207: 3853 units
8 Hyundai i10: 2955 units
9 Audi A3: 2738 units
10 Fiat 500: 2439 units