People often ask me about the most popular cars, which are best, what makes a car so popular?
At one time the most popular car in Britain was the Ford Escort, so you might think it was the best car you could buy. Hold on, that just wasn’t true, it wasn’t even the best car in its class, so what gives?
Lots of things because for lots of drivers being the best is not actually a need, for a car to become one of the most popular cars it must have other important items in its portfolio, like how much does it cost to buy, to run in terms of miles to the gallon, to maintain, to insure, is it reliable and is it easy to drive.
For the most popular cars take the cost to buy, they will retail new at a commercial and competitive price set by the manufacturer taking into account its rivals costs, so the profit per car sold is not big, good news for the buyer and for the maker in trying to ensure the car’s popularity, that is too say numbers sold.
The new car becomes a used car, lots of choice starts to appear in the market, price becomes an issue, the most popular cars tend to depreciate quite quickly due to the numbers trying to find you the potential buyer.
To go back to the other important criteria, the cost of running the most popular cars tend to be the lowest you can find, petrol/diesel consumption will be good, service costs will be set at the lower end of the scale, so the car stays popular with the buying public. Parts are common and relatively cheap.
The fact of the matter is the most popular cars have another essential ingredient for the motoring public, they are very, very reliable.
The insurance costs for the most popular cars are in the lowest ratings, are easy to insure for most drivers, the young and the not so young will find most insurers are happy to offer a decent deal, try comparing the costs between a used 1.4 Ford Fiesta against that of a Mazda MX5 of the same age for a 25 year old!
Another point for making it onto the most popular cars list is the ease of driving them, the seats are pretty okay, the controls are simple but efficient, the gearbox, although no world beater is as easy as it gets for you to use, you can always find reverse even in the dark, this is sometimes an issue though with so called super cars!!
To sum up, the most popular cars are cheap to buy, easy to insure and service, parts are at the lower price end of the market, easy to drive and as reliable as you can get.
Even if you have the mis-fortune to crash, have a little bump, the repairs for most popular cars are relatively inexpensive. Regardless though which car you drive, please, please, please wear your seat belt.
