8L uk sales - only 58,000 in 7 years?

[jcs356]

The Daily Torygraph has a write up of the new 8V A3 today. Review was similar to others - nice car, lovely interior, but perhaps a bit too 'safe' or 'boring' in terms of styling & driving dynamics giving it 4 out of 5. Audi A3 review - Telegraph

Anyway, in the same article, Andrew English was less than complimentary of our 8L - saying "... this was basically a rejigged VW Golf for those with product-woofed hair and pointy shoes. That dull, first generation car barely made a dent in UK car buyer's consciousness, either, selling just 58,000 in 7 years." Then he states that the 8P was "...still Golf based..." but "... sold 247,000 in 9 years."

I'm a bit surprised by those stats - has the 8P really outsold the 8L by a factor of more than 4 fold?

 

[jojo]

Got to admit that 8P A3s are common, but it's UK sales figures only. When the 8L came along, there was an importing boom, which would have reduced the uk sales figure somewhat.

 

[jcs356]

Ah, yes, good point Joe, that won't include personal imports

 

[brasiliangringo]

I dont really pay too much attention to these tarty journos who like reading their own work a little too much. ''product-woofed hair and pointy shoes'' he probably drives a Skoda and is jealous considering what a chicken feed salary buys them !!

 

[Gops]

Well the 8l was out 12 years ago and before.. There's more cars bought nowadays, so that skoda driving journalist can crash into a tree! Theres a reason why he works at the telegraph and not places like autocar etc.. Because he's crap! The new A3 looks like a slightly bigger A1!

 

[Audi S3 freak]

Well to be fair 8p's are as common as skinny jeans on men......every ****s got them but it still don't make it right!!!! Will stick to my more rare 8l thank u very much!!!

 

[Nilz]

Also the 8P was and is used alot more as a company car, so im sure that would have bumped sales figures up, as I dont know of any 8L that would have been used as a company car.

 

[Viking]

You can check the data for how many cars were licensed here. That'll give a figure for how many of a particular model were on the road. Combined results here.

Although that doesn't differentiate between the 8L and 8P cars, it's just the total. Still gives an interesting snapshot of how many are left.