9. Mercedes-Benz C-Class (2016: 9th)
The eternal battle between the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class is one of the most keenly-fought rivalries in the car industry, and once again the Mercedes has taken the honours in 2017.
Fleet sales are very important to this contest, and the C-Class’ success suggests that Mercedes has done a better job of wooing fleet buyers than its fellow Germans. In fact, among the best-selling cars of 2017, this was the most popular saloon model of any manufacturer. So Mondeo Man has essentially become Mercedes Man. He’s probably a lot happier about that than Ford is…
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class has remained in ninth position, although sales rose by more than 1,700 or nearly 4% in a falling marketplace (45,912 registrations in 2017 vs. 44,184 in 2016). Having been on sale since 2014, we expect to see a facelift for the C-Class this year, probably revealed at the Geneva motor show in March before going on sale here in the UK by summer.