The bitterly fought small family car group is worth some 40 per cent of the market, and is led by Ford's Focus (8,882) ahead of Toyota's Corolla (6,505) and the somewhat dated Nissan Almera (6,429) jousting each other for second place.
VW's Golf (5,677) is holding its own well a year or so in advance of its replacement. Opel's Astra (4,824) lost sales and market share, but it too is going to be replaced at the end of next year or early 2004, earlier than planned.
The new Renault Megane, winning the European Car of the Year 2003 and with its full derivatives range rolling out in 2003, could quite possibly push its way into the fifth slot in the segment next year, as Golf and Astra sales slow in anticipation of the new models.
The top five cars were responsible for more than 53 per cent of all sales in the segment. The Peugeot 307 (3,047) in its first full year substantially improved on the performance of the predecessor 306, while the new Fiat Stilo (2,236) added about 50 per cent unit sales against the Bravo/Brava which ended production last year. Notable losers in this largest segment included VW's Bora, Hyundai's Accent, and Daewoo's Lanos, now replaced by the Kalos.
Next year will see a Mazda 3 coming to market ahead of the new Astra and Golf, and probably uprating sales substantially with the good hype surrounding the 6's success as Semperit Irish Car of the Year 2003.
- Brian Byrne