The Blue Oval announced that the Ford Fiesta would be discontinued back in 2022, and the long-running model has since been replaced on the assembly lines at the Cologne Electric Vehicle Center by the Explorer and Capri EVs. Despite this, the Ford Fiesta remains an incredibly popular entity on the used vehicle market, ranking as the best-selling such model in the UK in 2022, 2023, and the first part of 2024. Now that we’ve turned the calendar to yet another new year, the Ford Fiesta has once again topped the used vehicle sales charts in that part of the world, too.
According to new data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the Ford Fiesta – a popular target among shoppers and thieves alike – closed out 2024 as the UK’s best-selling used vehicle once again, this time, after racking up 306,207 sales – giving it a rather healthy lead over the second-place Vauxhall Corsa and its 252,761 units sold. The Fiesta’s soon-to-be-discontinued counterpart, the Ford Focus, ranked fourth on the charts as well with 228,220 sales in the used market last year. While the Fiesta has been discontinued, it’s possible that Ford may bring back small cars – at least in Europe – though whether or not that will actually happen remains to be seen.
As for the overall UK used vehicle market, it grew by 5.5 percent to 7,643,180 sales in 2024, marking eight consecutive quarters of growth in the meantime. For the entirety of the year, consumers scooped up 400,488 more used vehicles than they did in 2023, and sales grew each month throughout 2024 as well – closing out strong in Q4 with a four percent jump to 1,746,051 units.
“The used car sector’s 25-month growth streak is good news for fleet renewal and for consumers benefitting from the greater choice filtering through from the new market,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive. “Record sales of second hand EVs also demonstrates strong appetite for these cutting-edge cars at lower price points. Ensuring ongoing growth, however, means maintaining that affordability, along with supply, which requires meaningful fiscal incentives to stimulate consumer demand for new EVs and removing the VED expensive car tax disincentive that risks dragging down used EV affordability for years to come.”
Comments
What is it that they used to say…”The best new cars make the best used cars!” I think is how it went…
I’ve always bought used since 1968. Let someone else get the bugs out and take the depreciation hit. But I’m looking for a car without a tailpipe and pickings are slim, despite the oil industry claiming “nobody wants them” and “used ones are worthless” and “lots are full of them”. People love their EVs and hold onto them, seems to be the problem.