Best-selling cars in the UK

If you’re in the market for a small SUV then the Ford Puma is one of the best. It’s loosely based on the Ford Fiesta, sharing many of the same components and parts, but has a different look and rides much higher. 

Like the Ford Fiesta, it’s great fun on a country road but is also a happy motorway cruiser. If you’re after more performance, take a look at the Ford Puma ST, which shares the same 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine as the Ford Fiesta ST, producing 200PS.

For practicality, the Ford Puma’s ‘megabox’ feature is one to note. It's essentially a wipe-clean 80-litre storage area hidden underneath the boot floor. This takes the total boot space of the Puma up to 456 litres. A 2024 facelift has clearly kept its popularity up among new-car customers.

The latest Kia Sportage went on sale at the end of 2021 and, as its sales reflect, has been a hit with buyers. The previous model, which looks bland in comparison to the current Sportage’s bold design, was one of the best-selling cars before it came off sale and the latest model has proved just as popular. 

The Kia Sportage offers a wide choice of powertrains: conventional petrol and diesel, mild-hybrid petrol and diesel, and plug-in hybrid petrol, as well as the option of front or four-wheel drive and manual, six-speed auto or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearboxes, backed by Kia’s seven-year warranty.

The quality of the interior is just as impressive as the latest Nissan Qashqai and, like the Qashqai, the Kia Sportage is very practical. As our reviewers said, "it does everything a family SUV needs to do with little fuss".

Nissan has gone decidedly upmarket with the latest generation Nissan Qashqai and we think it’s by far the best Nissan Qashqai ever sold. Indeed, so do the UK public who bought it in droves in 2024.

The Nissan Qashqai has never been a particularly sporty family SUV (for that, you’d be better looking at rivals like the Mazda CX-30 and SEAT Ateca) but it does excel for practicality with its generous stowage areas, rear seats that fold flat, doors that open incredibly wide and extensive list of standard safety equipment, all of which made it hit with families.

Nissan also launched the Qashqai e-Power model, an unusual hybrid that uses a petrol engine as a generator for the electric motor, providing many of the benefits of electric cars with few of the drawbacks. It's a good system and more affordable to buy than plug-in hybrids. 

After debuting on the top 10 best-selling list in 2023, the Nissan Juke climbs from 10th to fourth in 2024. The original Juke was one of the first wave of crossover SUVs, and the second-generation model, released in 2020, keeps the sporty looks and raised body, but comes with a number of improvements.

The biggest changes are inside, with more space both in the front and back, so four adults should fit inside without too much issue, though it's better as a family car, with ample space in the rear for two children to sit comfortably. There's also a good amount of boot space, while if you keep away from the base model and you get a quality infotainment system. Engine choice is pretty simple, with a 115PS petrol engine that will be cheap to run, and a hybrid option too, while the handling is pretty sorted for a small SUV.

This is the second year in a row that the Tesla Model Y has been the fifth best-selling car in the UK, and the second year in a row that it's sold nearly over double the amount of cars as the Audi Q4 e-tron, which is the second most popular EV.

It's easy to see why the Model Y has proved so popular. It shares many of its parts with the Tesla Model 3 and while it doesn't get the swing up 'falcon' doors of the bigger Tesla Model X, this arguably is just as desirable. 

As we've come to expect from Tesla, the Model Y blends performance and range with the AWD version able to cover 315 miles while delivering a 0-62mph time of 5.0 seconds.

A favourite among UK car buyers for decades, the Volkswagen Golf was actually absent from last year's best-seller list, but it's back for 2024 and we're hardly surprised. The Golf is a tremendous all-rounder that's continually evolved over decades because customers love its blend of comfort, driving performance and interior qualilty.

Add in a range of trims and petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid power options and there's a Golf to suit a wide range of people. The latest version has been on sale since 2020 and comes very well-equipped with features across the range.

Its presence in the top 10 shows that there are plenty of people – more than 32,000 of them in fact – that are willing to pay the premium in price that the Golf has over some rivals.

Hyundai as a brand has changed beyond all recognition over the last 20 years. And if any car shows just how far it has come it's the latest Hyundai Tucson. We rank this as one of the best SUVs on the market with a high quality interior that wouldn't look out of place on a German premium car.

Well-built and reliable – all Hyundai models of course come with a five-year warranty – the Hyundai Tucson is a no-brainer if you want an easy-to-live-with family SUV. It's practical, too, with one of the largest boots in the class.

There's no longer a diesel Hyundai Tuscon, instead you can choose between petrol and hybrid power –including mild-hybrid, conventional hybrid and plug-in hybrid. The PHEV can cover 38 miles, rivalling the Ford Kuga PHEV.

An all-new MG HS has just arrived on the market, but it's the previous model that drove big sales in 2024. Price was a big selling point of the last-generation HS, as it undercut numerous rivals, such as the Kia Sportage or the Skoda Karoq, but delivered an upmarket cabin and an impressive amount of standard equipment for the price.

The promise of a transferrable seven-year, 80,000-mile warranty didn't hurt either, offering customers peace of mind beyond that of most rivals. Available in both petrol and plug-in hybrid forms, the MG HS is still well worth looking for on the used market, and we'll be very interested to see if the similarly-impressive all-new model, released in 2024, can replicate the success of its predecessor.

"Family-friendly premium SUV perfection" wrote our reviewers about the Volvo XC40, and that was some seven years ago, so imagine how good it must be to still feature on the UK's best-selling cars list. The XC40 is small but beautifully made, with stylish looks and excellent all-round performance. It's decent value for money, too.

Available with petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid power, the XC40 is a family-friendly SUV with ample appeal and very few weaknesses. It even holds its value well, and is highly sought-after on the used market. An electric version, called the EX40, is also available new, after the electric version of the XC40 was renamed. It, too, is very impressive.

There's a certain poetry to the Volkswagen Polo being number 10 on the best-seller list, because it's also the only car on the list that we gave a perfect 10 score too. In addition, it's the oldest car here, having been introduced in its current form way back in 2017.

Our reviewers summed up the Polo as "like a Golf, but smaller" and that's a pretty good summary. It has the same premium, feature-packed appeal combined with comfort and strong all-round driving performance, and while it's a touch pricier than some of its competitors, customers seem to love the extra sense of solidity it brings. Refinement could be its middle name, and with petrol and diesel models to choose from, several trim levels and even the performance Polo GTI for those that want a bit of extra fun, the Polo rightly appeals to a very broad church.