The Nissan Qashqai has overtaken the Ford Fiesta as the best-selling car in September, with 13,499 registered across the month compared with the Fiesta’s 10,826.
The surprise figures follow a slightly less buoyant sales period for Fiesta since the latest-generation model was launched, although the car remains the best-seller across the year so far, with 75,814 registered compared with the Qashqai’s 53,197.
For September, though, the Fiesta dropped to third, with the Volkswagen Golf moving into second place with 12,800 registrations. In the year to date, VW’s best-seller sits in third place, after Ford’s Fiesta and Ford Focus.
In January-September 2016, Ford had shifted 96,139 Fiestas; 20,000 more than this year. However, the new car market was altogether stronger last year. The Vauxhall Corsa, the Fiesta’s closest supermini rival in terms of sales, is also down nearly 20,000 on January-September 2016, with 46,600 finding homes in 2017 so far compared with 64,925 in the same period last year.
The weaker figures for the UK’s two best-selling superminis goes some way to confirm the industry’s prediction of the decline of small hatchbacks. Meanwhile, the Qashqai remains stable year on year, gaining almost 3000 sales so far this year over the same period in 2016.
A Ford spokesman said that only two of the Fiesta's six trim levels - Zetec and Titanium - are currently available to order, hence the slower sales. The other trims - entry-level Style, sportier ST-line and range-topping Vignale – will become available in the coming months.
In a bumper month for Nissan, the Nissan Juke also managed to clinch a top ten spot in September, with 7757 registrations during the month pushing it into eighth place. Mercedes-Benz maintained its two top ten positions in September, with the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Mercedes-Benz C-Class taking ninth and tenth.
A Nissan spokesman said: "The revolutionary Nissan Qashqai created the crossover segment when it was introduced and over the last 10 years has become a UK and Europe market best-seller. A new model was introduced in June with updated design and equipment, and enhanced technology, and its success in September is testament to the Qashqai’s continuing consumer appeal.”
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Vignale
Top spec fiesta is indeed about the same price as the base cashcow. The cashcows I have been in are much nicer than a fiesta. But this can't account for this, it's not a trade off. You need a burly offroaderette for Britain's brutal roads and horrific winter weather. Oh. you don't do you.
Changing consumer demand and tastes. People just like 'em.
SUV's are the future!!!!
SUV's are trendy because they are so versatile, just like a old estate car but jacked up & on steroids!!!! So much easier to get into for ya over 60's!!!! & lots of room for families too!!!!
Now that Ford has tried to push the Fiesta up another class bigger it has also increased it's price too, mainly because it's produced in high wage cost Germany & with the low value of the Pound old Henry has got to try & make a big more dosh, innit, John.
The base price of the Qashqui now seems like a bargain in comparison to the Ford.
Has the motor industry
Has the motor industry predicted the decline of the small hatchback? I'm surprised - cars like the Fiesta, Polo, Ibiza, Corsa, etc provide an ideal compact vehicle for people of all ages and lifestyles. Surely not everyone wants to replace them with a small SUV?
catnip wrote:
It is certainly to be hoped that not everyone wants to have a jeep, for the sake of the planet. Exhaust emissions are a red herring, there is a bigger problem is with the pollution caused in obtaining materials and the manufacturing process, which is obviously exacerbated in the case of turning every class of car into these hulking great monsters, which properly belong only on farms and mountainsides. Not to mention the biggest problem of all, the extra resources they use in the course of being larger than cars, and the extra congestion they cause by lengthening traffic lines and taking up larger parking spaces.
Jeeps are also more dangerous, due to their weight and height making them harder to control in extreme situations, and increasing impact mass on whatever and whoever they hit. They aren't a vehicle designed to be in normal use on the roads, and the mine-is-bigger-than-yours culture they represent needs to be reversed, and soon, because they are only going to keep growing, and before long families will be having things the size of lorries on their driveway.
Jeeps are untenable for our future, both socially and environmentally.