UK Vehicle Intelligence · Updated weekly

What a car, van or bike will actually cost you.

Depreciation, running costs, and the parts most likely to fail — for the 310 best-selling cars, 30 top vans and 110 most-shopped bikes in Britain. Including older discontinued models still on the road. Search a make or model to begin.

The UK car market · SMMT

Full data →

New cars registered · May 2026

160,662

+7.1% year-on-year

Used cars sold · Q1 2026

2,016,232

-0.2% year-on-year

Best-selling new · May 2026

Best-selling used · Q1 2026

More than a quarter of new cars are now electric (27.3% in May 2026), but barely one in twenty used sales are (4.3% in Q1 2026) — the second-hand EV market runs years behind.

New = May 2026 registrations · Used = Q1 2026 transactions · Source: SMMT

The UK used-car data index

All rankings →

The whole catalogue, ranked on the numbers that decide what ownership costs — drawn from the same DVSA and DfT data behind every profile.

Best used buys

Dependable, past the steep drop

  1. 1Caterham Seven−2%/yr
  2. 2Audi A3−5%/yr
  3. 3Ford Focus−5%/yr
  4. 4BMW 1 Series−5%/yr
  5. 5Mercedes-Benz A-Class−5%/yr

Best time to sell

Still wanted, steepest fall ahead

  1. 1Volkswagen ID. Buzz−18%/yr
  2. 2Fiat 500e−18%/yr
  3. 3Tesla Model 3−17%/yr
  4. 4Polestar 2−17%/yr
  5. 5Volkswagen ID.3−17%/yr

Ranked across the catalogue by each model's forward annual depreciation, weighed against its UK parc trend and reliability — the smallest losses make the best buys, the steepest the best sells. Indicative, not advice. How these are ranked →

Most reliable — top 10 (from real DVSA MOT records)

  1. 1Lexus UX94 / 100
  2. 2Mazda CX-3092 / 100
  3. 3Lexus ES92 / 100
  4. 4Porsche Macan91 / 100
  5. 5Toyota bZ4X91 / 100
+ 5 more

Most economical — top 10 (combustion mpg)

  1. 1Toyota Aygo X62 mpg
  2. 2Honda Jazz61 mpg
  3. 3Toyota Corolla61 mpg
  4. 4Suzuki Swift61 mpg
  5. 5Renault Austral60 mpg
+ 5 more

Cheapest to insure — top 10 (lowest insurance group)

  1. 1Fiat 500group 8
  2. 2Toyota Aygo Xgroup 8
  3. 3Hyundai i10group 8
  4. 4Nissan Micragroup 8
  5. 5Kia Picantogroup 8
+ 5 more

Fastest-growing used EVs by cars added — top 10 (DfT licensing, year on year)

  1. 1BYD Seal+34,543 taxed (+1252.9%)
  2. 2Tesla Model Y+23,205 taxed (+22.6%)
  3. 3Tesla Model 3+21,061 taxed (+18.8%)
  4. 4BMW iX+15,600 taxed (+53.7%)
  5. 5Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron+13,865 taxed (+31.8%)
+ 5 more

How our estimates work

Market value

Calculated from each variant's launch price, segment-specific depreciation curves, mileage-band adjustments, and year of registration — not scraped from listing sites or pulled from trade-guide subscriptions.

Running costs

Service costs from manufacturer schedules. Fuel costs from VCA CO₂ tables and our weekly UK forecourt averages. Insurance from industry group ratings against typical driver-profile premiums.

Reliability

MOT pass rates and failure categories aggregated from millions of DVSA test records per model. Population stats from DfT VEH0124 vehicle licensing data.

Disagree with any number? Click the ? beside an estimate to see how it was derived and how other readers have weighed in.

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