As the years pass, you can’t keep a good car down.

The ever-popular car for driving instructors and new drivers continues its success despite no longer being available new.

Looking back to the election of Labour in 1997, the Ford Fiesta was the best-selling car.

Cometh the man

AA Cars reveals.

Nearly 30 years after Labour’s famous election win, in which Tony Blair won over the ‘Mondeo man’ to win scores of key marginal seats, data from AA Cars reveals how demand for the most popular cars of 1997 has changed.

The Ford Fiesta racked up nearly 120,000 sales in 1997, and among that year’s best-sellers, it is still the most searched for on AA Cars, the AA’s used car platform – despite production having ceased last year.

Another popular ADI choice, the Vauxhall Corsa, was the sixth best-selling car in 1997.

However, second-hand, it is now AA Cars’s second most popular model.

Democratic demands

The election campaign of 1997 witnessed the rise of the term ‘Mondeo Man’.

This was used to describe the average voter in the UK at the time.

Both the Ford Escort and Ford Mondeo were highly popular at the time,  ranking second and third for sales in 1997.

Today, they are less sought after by buyers, having been overtaken in popularity by the Vauxhall Astra and Renault Clio.

The Rover 400 is one of the other best-sellers from 1997 that isn’t available to buy on AA Cars.

The model was discontinued nearly two decades ago despite being the tenth best-selling car of 1997.

The Renault Megane narrowly missed a top 10 sales spot in 1997 but has been added to the current list instead of the Rover 400.

 

Ten best-selling makes and models of 1997

Ranking on AA Cars
Make and model
Current average value
Ranking in 1997
Volume of sales in 1997[1]
1
FORD FIESTA
£10,980
1
120,000
2
VAUXHALL CORSA
 £10,710
6
79,898
3
VAUXHALL ASTRA
£10,913
5
85,937
4
RENAULT CLIO
£10,955
10
58,033
5
FORD MONDEO
£11,241
3
107,000
6
VAUXHALL VECTRA
    £2,391
4
98,000
7
FORD ESCORT
£22,011
2
100,000
8
PEUGEOT 306
 £3,710
7
66,888
9
ROVER 200
 £4,999
8
62,365
10
RENAULT MEGANE
£12,265
11
57,654

 

Timeless popularity

James Hosking, Director of AA Cars, comments: “‘Mondeo Man’ was described as the key voter demographic successfully won over by Labour during the 1997 election campaign, even if the best-selling car of the year was the Mondeo’s stablemate, the perennially popular Ford Fiesta.

“Fast-forward nearly 30 years and both ‘Mondeo man’ and the car itself, which is no longer in production in Europe, have been consigned to history.

“Despite that, drivers in the UK can still get their hands on used Mondeos, which remain a popular family saloon car, as well as many of the other iconic best-sellers from 1997.

“The Ford Fiesta remains the nation’s favourite used car, but it is joined in the top three this year by the Vauxhall Corsa and Vauxhall Astra, which have overtaken the Mondeo and Escort in popularity.

“But while the preferences of car buyers have changed in the three decades since ‘Mondeo Man’ was making headlines, it is clear that many drivers remain loyal to the makes and models that they’ve favoured in the past.”