Dacia, Renault and VW are delivering new cars at the right prices
Mike Rutherford takes a look at new car sales figures across Europe
Car buyers from the leading countries of Europe, including Britain, have just selected their A-team. It comprises mostly of a disparate selection of small-to-medium-sized hatchbacks, some of which are more boringly low-tech than they are modern and cutting-edge.
I’m talking about an unlikely gaggle of mostly modest motors such as the Dacia Sandero, Fiat Panda and Renault Clio. And although their senior team-mates are more upmarket, they’re still a bit, well, ordinary. One is the Ford Puma. The other is the skipper-cum-elder statesman, the VW Golf, which has just celebrated its 51st birthday but refuses to retire.
The cheapest team members have a price tag of around £14,000 (lower in mainland Europe) while the most expensive remain under the £30k barrier. Not cheap. But by today’s standards, all are below average.
What makes such humble products special is that in 2024, they were the most in-demand cars among the paying customers of Europe’s top nations.
If you’d assumed that the obvious number one purchase for generally discerning, clued-up, well-off German consumers was a model from one of their ‘Big 3’ premium manufacturers, you’d be wrong. After being officially crowned Best Car of the Half Century (1974-2024) six months ago, the Golf was bought in greater numbers there than any other car last year. And to rub salt into the wounds of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, VW also took second and third with the T-Roc and Tiguan, which also start at around £30,000.
Number one in Italy was the Panda, the finest example ever of a proper real-world car built for the people and bought by locals in big numbers. In France, it was the Renault Clio – more of the same. The best seller in the UK was the Puma, sadly not built here.
The most under-estimated player in the game – Romania’s Dacia Sandero – was not only the top seller in Spain and Portugal, but also claimed the more prestigious prize of Europe’s best-selling car, 2024. The Clio was the worthy runner-up and the Golf third. The critically important message from real-world buyers could not be clearer. Sure, they’re happy to buy a few pricey, over-specced premium cars, the vast majority of them with traditional fuel tanks, but some not. They’re much happier, though, when they spend their hard-earned, post-tax disposable income on affordable, credible, not so gratuitously equipped models that have stood the test of time well.
Dacia, Renault and VW have obviously figured this out as they deliver the right factory-fresh goods at appropriate prices to financially challenged motorists across Western Europe. Why struggling, out-of-touch rival manufacturers don’t follow the example set by these three in-form companies is beyond me.
