BMW Group brands dominated the UK performance car market for the first three quarters of 2021, taking nine of the top 20 best-seller spots, including the outright win.
The Mini Cooper S topped the chart, with sales of 4171, beating the Toyota GR Yaris, which had a stunning run to place second with 2963.
The figures, compiled by Autocar from data from the Department of Transport (DfT), give new insight into a market that’s well publicised but where sales figures are tightly guarded by car makers.
Success in selling performance cars helps the manufacturer in two ways, firstly by raising the price of a base model and thus (hopefully) increasing margins.
The Mini hatchback is a good example: the Cooper S costs £22,205, a 28% increase on the base model, while the John Cooper Works commands a 59% increase, at £27,615.
Secondly, they act as a halo model to focus attention on the rest of the range.
This last aspect is key, reckons Oliver Petschenyk, powertrain analyst for analyst LMC Automotive. “The majority of performance variants of vehicles are flagships that generate publicity for the vehicles and indicate what pinnacle of engineering the company is capable of,” he told Autocar.
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BMW’s success in the UK was repeated globally last year. The company posted a record 163,542 sales of its M cars last year, a rise of 13% from the year before. BMW separates its M models into ‘high-performance’ and ‘performance’, with the latter including models like the BMW M135i, which finished third in the DfT figures with sales of 2831, and the M340i, which came eighth.
BMW also scored with sales of its 840i coupé/convertible, which came in 12th, with sales of 1190 – impressive for a car that starts at £74,475.
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It's a bit arbitrary isn't it, as to what's a performance car and what isn't. For example, the Tesla Model 3 Long Range sold more than any of the cars listed, gets to 60 in just over 4 seconds and goes round corners as well as several on the list, yet doesn't appear?
Also surprised the Toyota 86 isn't in the top sellers list, another one that I would like and would choose over the rest on the list.
Clearly my preferences are a minority though as they clearly didn't sell that well.
Oh, I suppose an abarth 500 is too old to be a good seller, I'd still have one though.
Si73, the GT86 ended production in 2021, sales were slowing anyway due to it being 8 years old, not sure when Toyota start taking orders for the GR86 in the UK