SUVs now the most popular car body style for Brits and Land Rover Defenders surge in interest off the back of The Traitors

As the UK’s largest automotive platform for buying and selling new and used cars, Auto Trader attracted on average over 82 million site visits and nearly 203 million advert views each month in 2024. With millions of trusted data points at its disposal, Auto Trader has crunched the numbers to reveal what the automotive market showed in 2024, including the most popular cars and the cultural trends that helped certain car colours and brands to achieve lofty heights.

SUVs tops the charts: the SUV became the most viewed body type in 2024 on the platform with 708 million views, dethroning the hatchback which was the most popular body style last year. Hearses were the least viewed body type with just 1,091 views.

Electric avenue: The Hyundai IONIQ 5 was the most popular new electric car on the Auto Trader platform in terms of advert views with around 536,000 in 2024. This was followed by the Kia EV9 with over 500,000 views and the Porsche Taycan which received 462,000 clicks.

Peak petrol: The Mercedes-Benz A Class was the fastest selling petrol car of the year on Auto Trader this year, selling in just 17 days. With 18.7 million petrol cars currently on the road, Auto Trader’s data reveals that we’ve now hit ‘peak petrol’ as the number of petrol-powered cars in the UK car parc is set to decline as motorists increasingly make the switch to electric.

Quadruple for black: for the fourth year in a row, black was the most viewed car colour on Auto Trader in 2024, with over 600 million views. Grey was second with 467 million, followed by white with 362 million.

Hole in one: the VW Golf remains a firm favourite for visitors to the Auto Trader platform. It was the most popular used car of 2024 with 64 million advert views on the site, whilst the Land Rover Range Rover was the most popular brand new car this year with close to 2.2 million views.

Brat green summer: Following the release of Charli XCX’s acclaimed album ‘Brat’ in the summer, which got the world embracing the vibrant ‘brat green’ colour, advert views for green-coloured cars on the site increased by an impressive 24% in June 2024 compared to June 2023.

Most unusual car listed: A unique 1969 Volkswagen Beach buggy which was built and designed for American children’s TV show The Bugaloos is currently on sale on the platform for just under £20,000. The bizarre looking car features bug wings that flap and a funky interior that will no doubt turn heads on the road.

Fiesta, forever: Although production of the iconic Fiesta ended last year, the hatchback was once again the most advertised car on Auto Trader this year, with around 106,000 listings. The popular Volkswagen Golf came in second with 94,000 listings, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa, with 90,000 adverts.

Searching for Traitors: Hit BBC show The Traitors returned to our screens at the start of the year to much fanfare with the Land Rover Defenders featuring prominently in each episode. The show whipped up a new wave of interest of the iconic car with searches of the Defender on the platform shooting up by 39% since the start of series one.

BYD scores Euros goal: Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD saw a huge 69% week-on-week increase in the number of advert views of its new models on Auto Trader during the first weekend of the Euro 2024 tournament. As millions of viewers across the UK tuned into the footballing action, BYD stole the show as official partner during the tournament with the brand appearing during TV advert breaks and on advertising hoardings around the pitch.

Tesla quick out the blocks: Over a million fully electric cars are now on the roads in the UK as motorists make the switch to electric and there’s one electric vehicle that Brits just can’t get enough of. The Tesla Model 3 was once again the fastest selling used electric vehicle in 2024 shifting on average in only 19 days.

Celebrity cars: F1 legend and three-time world Champion Ayrton Senna’s personal red Honda NSX went on sale on the platform this year for a whopping £500,000. The car, which Senna frequently used during his stays in Portugal in the early 90s when driving for McLaren, was snapped up in no time with one lucky buyer meeting the asking price to get the keys to a piece of automotive racing history.

Millionaire’s club: a variety of stunning cars in excess of £1 million made it on to the Auto Trader platform this year. The most expensive model that was advertised on Auto Trader in 2024 was a £3 million Pagani Huayra, an Italian supercar which boasts a top speed of around 238mph and can achieve 0-60 mph in just 2.8 seconds.

Bargain hunt: The cheapest advert that appeared on Auto Trader this year was a 59 plate (2009/2010) Vauxhall Astra which went up for sale for just £75. Thanks to its very low price tag, the Astra managed to generate over 1,600 advert views from those looking for a cheap run around.

Biggest price riser: with hundreds of thousands of daily pricing observations from across the whole retail market, Auto Trader’s Retail Price Index has tracked some surging price tags this year, including the classic version of the Peugeot 308 Sport, which saw its average price rise over 73% in 2024 to £4,002.

Biggest price faller: at the opposite end of the spectrum, the average price of a Honda Civic Executive fell -53% over the year, to £2,455.

Erin Baker, Editorial Director at Auto Trader commented, ‘At Auto Trader we have a huge wealth of data points which can allow us to have a clear view of how the automotive market is performing and spot any trends in car buying habits from Brits. The last twelve months have shown that cultural moments such as The Traitors and the Euros can have a noticeable impact in influencing the types of vehicles consumers are searching for and hoping to add to their driveways.’