Like a Golf, only slightly taller. Little wonder then that VW’s T-Roc has been a huge hit, with more than a million sold worldwide, and is currently the firm’s third best-selling car in the UK (behind, you guessed it, the Golf and Polo). In fact, the only surprise is that this review isn’t higher up this list.
The Range Rover for the style conscious, if you need something bigger than an Evoque, but not as big as a Range Rover Sport. In 2023, the facelifted version was also the first car Range Rover launched on its then-new TikTok channel, to prove it was down with the kids, or something like that. It quickly went viral – with some 36 million views to date.
In a sea of crossovers and SUVs, be a raucous hot hatch. Built to comply with WRC homologation regs back in 2020, it was one of a very select few 10/10 cars on TopGear.com at launch, though its price has since skyrocketed to £45k, putting it in Honda Civic Type R territory. Not bad company to keep mind.
Skoda’s no longer the punchline it once was, and as far as SUVs go, the Kodiaq’s a good’un. Over 850,000 were sold globally during the first generation’s eight-year lifespan, with the UK the second biggest market. The follow up version arrived in 2024 and picked up where its predecessor left off. You won’t find much better bang for your buck elsewhere.
The poster car for lightweight two seat coupes, the A110 is an old school approach to modern day sportscars. Weighing in at just 1,100kg, it’s the perfect antidote to pretty much every overweight lump on sale today, and costs from just £55k. Arguably one of the best sports cars ever made.
The Audi Q5’s been with us since 2008, but it was the second gen that was the real success story. Launched in 2016, it remained Audi’s best seller right up until its time of calling came in 2024, and even then Audi shifted 298,000 examples of it, putting it some way clear of its closest in-house rival. Still got the chop mind, and the third gen is arguably worse off…
The Merc C-Class saloon is still a hugely important car for the German brand despite the world’s obsession with SUVs. Indeed, while its overall bestseller may now be the GLC SUV, Merc still sold 2.5 million examples of the previous fourth generation C-Class between 2014 and 2021. You don’t have to look too hard to see one on our roads.
Land Rover’s Freelander replacement was A Big Deal, and its best seller from 2014-2020. It’s since been overtaken by the new Defender, but it remains a key product for the brand. A facelift in 2019 saw it switch to a new platform, shared with the Range Rover Evoque, but helps keep it relevant today.
Jaguar’s first EV won plenty of plaudits back at its launch in 2018 for its stylish looks, sporty driving dynamics and premium feel. It was the perfect foundation for the brand to kick on from, and yet it was axed along with every other model in the range during Jaguar’s rebrand in 2024. In hindsight…
Launched in 2013, the i3 was born before its time. Its modern looks, carbon fibre shell and lightweight aluminium chassis were the stuff of the future – and the perfect backbone for an urban EV – but back then simply too expensive. It lasted just nine years, with only 250,000 having made it to market, and remains a compelling used option even today. Things are about to get confusing though, because the upcoming Neue Klasse saloon will also be called the i3.
Cupra’s first model since it became a standalone brand, the combustion-engined Formentor is a sporty coupe SUV based on the Seat Ateca. Named after a picturesque peninsula in Majorca, a nod to Cupra’s Spanish roots, last year it was the company’s bestseller with 111,300 deliveries worldwide, comfortably outperforming the all-electric Born (41,800 units).
Surely one reason above all else this makes the list: those looks. Because there’s nothing Joe Public loves more than scorning at something on the internet. Shame, because the BMW iX is otherwise a highly impressive car. And slightly more tolerable now it’s been facelifted.
Like the C-Class above, Mercedes’ A-Class hatch has long been a bestseller for the brand on our shores, because when it comes to impressing the neighbours… anything with a three-pointed star on the front is generally a pretty safe bet. Though, the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series might have something to say about that.
Simply one of the UK’s most popular cars ever, with over 1.75 million sold in this country alone. And yet, still not enough to save it from being axed, with production having ended and Ford shifting its focus towards EVs instead. A crying shame.
When a car looks this good… it’s always going to attract attention. And to anyone who’s got their eye on an Audi A4, BMW 3 Series or Merc C-Class, this pulls at the heartstrings just that little bit more. Speaks volumes that this generation lives on given it was launched way back in 2015.
Once the UK’s best-selling car (in 2022), the British-built Nissan Qashqai has since been dethroned but remains a hugely popular choice for buyers in the UK and beyond. Some four million have been sold worldwide since it arrived in 2007.
We’ve already seen the Skoda Kodiaq on its list… now here’s its little brother. It offers much the same qualities as its sibling – including excellent build quality, a practical cabin and appealing pricetag – just in a slightly smaller package. Ticks a lot of boxes.
No less than Volkswagen’s current most popular model. Yep, the Tiguan now outsells the Golf, with over seven and a half million of them having rolled out the doors since it was launched in 2007. We’re into generation three now, and there’s more tech, more space, and more engine choice than ever before. A very competent all-rounder.
If the Tiguan is VW’s overall most popular model globally, the ID.4 is its most popular electric vehicle globally. The crossover sibling of the ID.3 hatch (see below), it’s far from the most interesting around based on our experience, but that hasn’t stopped the buying public from opening their wallets.
VW’s family hatch for the electric age, the ID.3 was the first ID. model when it was unveiled back in 2019, and within 24 hours Volkswagen received over 10,000 pre-orders. Didn’t quite live up to expectation (and indeed the Golf lives on) mainly thanks to its much-maligned interior tech, but a facelift in 2023 addressed most of our complaints.
It’s been around since 1970, and in that time it’s developed a proper cult following. Generation four arrived in 2018, and while in the UK all new Jimnys have been snapped up, its loyal following means there’s still plenty of interest in the classifieds.
Launched back in 1994 and now in its fifth generation, over 15 million RAV4s have been sold to date. And it’s getting better with age: in 2024 it was the world’s best-selling car outright, surpassing the Tesla Model Y, with 1.185 million rolling off the production line. Not quite as polished as some rivals, but a reliable workhorse.
No surprises here: the Ford Puma was the UK’s bestselling car in 2023, 2024 and 2025. We like it because it’s one of the better crossovers to drive thanks to its Fiesta underpinnings, you’ll like it because… it’s a more practical Fiesta. Win-win for everyone, then.
Here’s one for the pub fact fans: this is now Volvo’s best-selling model of all time with over 2.7 million examples shifted since its launch back in 2008. Yep, even more than the iconic 240, which it overtook in early 2025. Stands out for its Scandinavian style, but also as comfortable and as safe as you’d expect of any modern-day Volvo.
Sure, the XC60 might be Volvo’s best-selling model of all time, but the smaller XC40 was its best-selling car in the UK in 2024 – and the ninth best-selling car here overall. Yes, it’s another compact SUV on the list, but it’s one of the better ones and comes available with plug-in hybrid, mild hybrid or fully electric powertrains. Something for everyone.
Mazda’s mid-size SUV accounts for a quarter of all its cars sold in the UK, second only to the CX-30 crossover, while more than 4.5 million have rolled off the production line globally. Or in other words, four times as many as the MX-5 in a third of the time on sale…
The Peugeot 3008 is arguably the best of the many, many mid-size family crossovers from within the Stellantis megacorp, and this third-gen version picks up where its predecessor left off. In its first six months on sale, over 100,000 rolled off the production line in Europe, with the three bestselling markets France (35,000), the UK (25,000) and Germany (9,000).
This is the third generation of Dacia’s budget friendly small family size crossover, and since it was launched back in 2010 over 2.2 million have been built, with over 100,000 of those destined for Britain. Around 1,000 roll off the production line in Pitesti, Romania, every day – or about one every minute – all those people can’t be wrong.
Never heard of it… said no one ever. The Tesla Model 3 was the bestselling electric car globally from 2018 to 2020, and while it’s since slipped down the list, the 3 offers one key advantage over pretty much all its electric car rivals: Tesla’s Supercharger network. Also the only car along with the Y that Tesla sells in the UK these days.
Surprised? It might only have been around for the past five years, but our most read car review of the past 10 years is… the Polestar 2. Where Polestar’s first car, the 1, was an expensive plug-in hybrid coupe, the 2 is a desirable, practical and attainable all-electric crossover thing that feels as fresh today as it did at launch.