Ford Fiesta back on top as the UK’s best-selling car in October

The Ford Fiesta has placed at the top of the monthly best-selling cars list for the first time since the new model was launched.

The sixth-generation Fiesta had long been the best-selling car in the UK up until May 2017, when sales dropped due to that model being phased out as Ford prepared to launch a new version.

Fortunately for the Blue Oval the release of the seventh-generation Fiesta seems to have gone according to plan, and the updated model topped the SMMT’s new car registrations list for October 2017.

In total 7,256 new Fiestas were registered in October, putting Ford’s popular hatchback miles ahead of the Volkswagen Golf, which came second with 5,547 new units sold.

Ford also secured third place in the list, with the Focus seeing 4,503 new examples registered, and 10th place, as 2,493 new Kugas were also sold.

The Nissan Qashqai, which was the UK’s best seller in September, slipped to fourth place with 3,923 registrations.

In year-to-date figures, the Fiesta remains at the top, with 83,070 new units registered in the first 10 months of 2017. The Golf placed second in this table with 62,565 units sold, and the Focus kept third position with 62,029 examples registered.

Despite the good news for Ford, the outlook for the UK car industry as a whole isn’t so rosy. New car registrations for October were down 12.2 per cent compared with last year, and marked the seventh consecutive month of decline for the new car market in the UK.

Last week, industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders downgraded its forecast for overall sales in 2017, predicting 4.7 per cent fewer cars would be sold than in 2016.

By Tristan Shale-Hester with additional reporting by Darren Cassey