What’s the car people wanted to buy more than any other this year?
Leading used- and new-car selling site Auto Trader has revealed the models that were looked up most commonly as drivers hunted for a new set of wheels in 2017.
Taking the crown for the seventh consecutive year was the BMW 3 Series with more than 40million searches.
Auto Trader ranked models by the number of times drivers used the search function on its website to find new and used cars being advertised by owners and dealers.
BMW’s compact executive saloon took the outright victory by amassing no fewer than 40.2million searches over the last 12 months, racking up the most searches for any diesel car in 2017.
However, it wasn’t the most in-demand petrol model. That record ironically went to the VW Golf – which was the runner-up overall with 39.5million searches – just two years on from Volkswagen’s emissions test cheating scandal that prompted the recent clampdown on diesel cars in the UK.
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class was the third most viewed model type, tallying 24.6million searches in 2017.
In fact, it was premium German models that most Britons appear interested in, with all but three cars featured in the top 10 list falling into this category.
The Ford Fiesta (the most-bought new car in 2017 and several of the last few years) along with the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra (which are also perennial high-volume sellers) made up the league table of most looked-up vehicles.
Auto Trader’s report said: ‘The annual top ten standings indicates the nation’s enduring interest of premium models, with BMW and Mercedes-Benz featuring five times in the list.
