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.
