Searches for pink cars see 155% increase following the launch of Barbie movie.
Tesla Model 3 is the fastest selling EV of 2023, taking an average of just 23 days.
The iconic Volkswagen Golf was the most popular car in 2023, attracting 66 million advert views.

As the UK’s largest automotive platform for buying and selling new and used cars, Auto Trader has attracted over 900 million visits this year (circa 77 million every month) and nearly 2.5 billion advert views. Below we plunge into our treasure trove of data to pluck out our highlights from 2023, from the most expensive cars on sale to the most weird and wonderful:

Most unusual car: A rare Baci Roadster from 1995 is currently on sale on the Auto Trader platform for nearly £30,000. With only 14 of these ever built and the car somewhat resembling the shape of Cruella De Vil’s luxury vehicle in the hit Disney movie 101 Dalmatians, the quirky and exclusive Roadster will certainly grab other road users’ attention.

Hey Barbie: with the Barbie movie dropping to much fanfare in 2023, it seems that some car enthusiasts wanted to join in on the hype and ‘Barbiecore’ their ride. Searches for pink cars on the platform spiked dramatically on the day of the release of the movie, increasing a whopping 155% on the previous day (see graph attached).

Fiesta tops the charts: once again, the iconic but sadly discontinued Ford Fiesta has been the most advertised car on the Auto Trader platform this year, with around 124,000 separate listings – up 16,000 from the year before. The equally iconic Volkswagen Golf came in second with 98,000 listings, closely followed by the Fiesta’s slightly bigger brother, the Ford Focus, with 97,000 adverts.

Tesla Model 3 flying off the forecourt: electric vehicles are continuing to grow in popularity, and this is only set to continue over the coming years as Brits look to transition over ahead of the 2035 ban of new petrol/diesel vehicles. The popular Tesla Model 3 was the fastest selling electric vehicle in 2023 on the site, managing to shift on average in only 22 days.

I’m A Celebrity, sell my Kompany car: an exciting array of vehicles go on sale every day on Auto Trader often being sold by famous faces, ranging from royalty to Premier League footballers. In fact, a limited-edition Ford Mustang Shelby previously owned by current Premier League Manager and Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany was listed on the site this year for a cool £60,000.

Bargain hunt: by contrast the cheapest advert that appeared on Auto Trader this year was a 53 plate (2003/4) Mercedes-Benz C Class which went up for sale in October for a mere £75. Thanks to its very low-price tag, the Merc managed to generate 1,400 advert views from bargain hunters.

Millionaire’s club: a variety of stunning and unique cars deserving their +£1,000,000 price tags made it on to the marketplace this year. The most expensive model to be regularly advertised on Auto Trader in 2023, was Ferrari’s exquisite LaFerrari with nine vehicles priced over £3 million, such as this incredible example.

Hatrick for Black: for the third year in a row, black was the most viewed car colour on the Auto Trader platform in 2023, with 552 million views. Grey is in second place with 415 million followed by white with 333 million.

Golf club: the VW Golf still has a lot of strong appeal amongst visitors to the Auto Trader website. It was the most popular car of 2023 with 66 million advert views on the site. The BMW 3 series received 61 million views whilst the Mercedes C class achieved a respective 48 million clicks on its adverts.

Funeral for a friend: it comes as no surprise that the hatchback was the most viewed body shape in 2023 on the platform with 696 million views however there was still a niche market for hearses which was the least viewed body shape with just 1,700 views.

Electric avenue: The MG MG4 was the most popular new electric car on the Auto Trader platform in terms of advert views with around 540,000 in 2023. This was followed by the BMW i4 with over 400,000 views and the BMW iX which received 306,000.

French hatchback quick off the mark: the iconic French run-around, the Peugeot 208 was the fastest selling petrol car of the year on Auto Trader this year, selling in just 14 days.

“With nearly 470,000 cars advertised, and over 75 million monthly visits from car buyers, we have a very broad view of the retail market, and as a result we get to see the weird, the wonderful, and all of the latest consumer appetites reflected in search trends. This year was definitely no exception and I have no doubt we’ll be reporting some equally unbelievable highlights next Christmas.”