SALES STORY
Forecasts predict that in 2022, 1.7 million new cars are likely to be registered in the UK. But the way we buy those cars has now changed beyond recognition. If we were to propel someone forward 60 years from the early 1960s, he would be astounded at just how few cars are bought outright and the ease of access to finance packages. But he would also be astounded by the wide range of cars on the roads of Britain today; in 1962, there were 393 different models available to buy in Britain, and that’s if we consider technical variants (such as the standard Austin A60 Cambridge and the same car with automatic transmission) to be separate entities. By 2020, there were 1429 car models to choose from, and that’s without digging into the options lists.
It should come as no surprise with such choice out there that no individual model can claim to command a significant chunk of the market in modern Britain. Yet in Harold Wilson’s Britain, the BMC 1100/1300 family could, by itself, command a market share of up to 15 per cent, with between 130,000 and 150,000 examples finding homes in every year from 1965 to 1971.
Of the 661,121 cars sold in Britain to the end of April 2022, 17,198 were of the market-leading Vauxhall Corsa. That’s just over 2.5 per cent of the market – a sixth of that commanded by the 1100 sixty years ago. Even whole marques can’t match the humble 1100; Ford has a 7.7 per cent market share, while Kia (which hadn’t even started making cars in 1962) has 7.3 per cent, and Audi (almost unknown outside Germany in the ’60s) has just under seven per cent… and those are the three bestsellers by brand so far this year. You need to add in all BMW sales, all Toyota sales, all VW
