What would the UK look like in 100 cars?

The most popular models are usually the same year on year, with big brands such as Ford and Volkswagen leading the way, and 2021 is no exception. With more than 26,000 2021 registrations, the Vauxhall Corsa ranks as the most popular new car within the UK. 

The Corsa is followed by the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Golf – they may be small cars but they’re clearly targeted towards a big pool of Brits. All three are commonly produced in three-door specifications, and this pattern at the top shows that the need for cost-effective, budget friendly cars is still very much present (because we can’t all afford that supercar now, can we?). 

Despite having been hit by a global pandemic, figures showed that there was a 12% increase [1] in the value of the second-hand car market within the UK. As new cars can come at a premium, buying used has become increasingly attractive to drivers. 

Using internal search data, we took a look at the most searched-for cars that have been on the radar for Brits over the past 12 months. If you own a Ford Fiesta and are looking to sell, you could be in luck. This iconic car accumulated more than 1,000,000 page views from searches, beating all its competitors in terms of demand. 

Once again, there is a recurring theme among the top second-hand cars, with models such as the Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Golf and BMW 1, 3 and 5 series featuring. 

We’d say that choosing the colour of your car is a fairly important decision. But how do you stand out from the crowd? Well, avoid the colour black for a start. 

As of March 2020, we found that 20 in 100 drivers in the UK drive a black car. From the 32 million cars on the road, this equates to 6.5 million (we bet you can’t stop looking out for them now). Silver and blue make up the top three most represented colours. 

As we’re still in the early years of electric and hybrid engine development, it won’t come as much of a surprise to see that out of every 100 UK cars, 58.9 are petrol and 37.6 are diesel. 

Of the remaining cars, 2.1 are powered by hybrid electric technology, with the final 1.2 using plug-in and batteries. Low numbers when looking from afar, but certainly a taste of what lies ahead in the future of the automotive industry.

Ever wondered what the gender split of drivers in the UK is? We certainly have. Looking at data from 2019, we found that 80% of UK men and 71% of UK women hold a driver’s licence.