Best-selling cars of 1984

Take a look at the top 10 best sellers in the UK today and the list is pretty much dominated by crossovers and compact SUVs, with the traditional hatchback barely getting a look-in. It was all rather different forty years ago, of course, when it was a roll-call of cars that we now consider as nailed-on classics.

So let’s take a look at what car buyers were spending their money on in 1984, and topping the chart was the Ford Escort with 157,340 sales. This was the Mk 3 model that had arrived to much fanfare four years earlier, and coming in second was another family car stalwart in the shape of the second-generation Vauxhall Cavalier. 132,149 buyers spent their money on one of those.

All images provided by Magic Car Pics: https://www.magiccarpics.co.uk

Taking third place with 125,851 sales was the Mk 2 Ford Fiesta that had arrived a year previously, and not too far behind in fourth was the Austin/MG Metro with 117,442 leaving the showroom. And at the half-way point in our list we find the Ford Sierra with 113,071 sold; it’s aerodynamic ‘jelly-mould’ shape was very different to the Cortina it had replaced.

Now we’re into the bottom half of the table and in sixth place was the Austin/MG Maestro. The neatly-styled hatchback had done much to revitalise the brand’s fortunes and in 1984 it was rewarded with 83,072 sales, which put it quite a way ahead of the seventh-placed Vauxhall Astra which tempted 56,511 buyers to part with their cash. The aerodynamic Mk 2 would be launched later in the year, so most of those sold would have been the boxier Mk 1.

And Vauxhall’s third appearance in the top 10 was also doing well, the company shifting 55,442 examples of its neat and capable Nova supermini to put it in eighth position. It would remain on sale until 1993 when it was replaced by the cuter looks of the Corsa, and that was to prove equally popular.

What’s to be found at number nine? Well, that would be another Ford and this time it was the Escort’s booted cousin, the Orion; 51,026 were sold. Rounding off the top 10 was Volvo’s long-running 300 Series that dated back to 1976, but it was still decently popular with 35,034 sales. And the only model name that still survives today? Yes, it’s the Vauxhall Astra.