Place 15, 33 and 76: the demise of the Golf, Astra and Focus in the Netherlands

Volkswagen, Opel and Ford, for a long time the ‘home, garden and kitchen brands’ of the common man. In the year 2000, we still found the Golf, Astra and Focus proudly occupying first, second and third places in the sales rankings. In the period before that, it was often these brands that divided the top 3, albeit with a Ford called Escort and – even earlier – an Opel called Kadett. After the turn of the century, this distribution quickly became less certain (like everything in life, we hear you think), but even after 2000 we often found these cars high in the sales statistics. The Golf took back the first place from the Astra in 2001, the Astra returned here again in 2006. The Focus then finished in 3rd place and the Golf still in sixth place. Volkswagen’s compact mid-sized car later even managed to fight its way back to a number 1 position, where it finished in 2009, 2014 and 2016. In between, a second place was often possible, while the Focus finished in a respectable fifth place in 2008 and 2009.

And now? Measured over the first 11 months of this year, we now find the Volkswagen Golf in 33rd place in the sales ranking. The Astra, a fresh model, should settle for a 76th (!) place in 2022. The Ford Focus did slightly better this year, but with a 15th place in the sales rankings, it is clearly past its peak. In fact, with these results we can hardly call the former automotive cornerstones important anymore.

What went wrong? The answers are guessable. First of all, the addition for private use of a business car, very important in this segment, was made dependent on CO2 emissions from 2008. We all know the consequences of that. People abandoned the last remnant of brand loyalty and happily left the traditional hatchback or station wagon for an Outlander, Prius, Civic Hybrid or – later – Tesla. This immediately addresses another cause of the ‘marginalisation’ of the compact middle class: electrification. Volkswagen’s own ID3, for example, finished second in the Netherlands in 2020. The Gulf was then in 14th place.

The SUV in general has not missed its effect either. Tiguans, Grandlands, Kugas and the alternatives from other brands did better year after year, displacing the traditional sales toppers from the best places. In the meantime, it is mainly the more compact models that are doing well. For example, the Peugeot 2008 finishes fairly high, as do the Toyota Yaris Cross and Renault Captur.

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It cannot be the color of the test cars: in 2022 and in 2004 Focuses will be blue, Golfs black and Astras yellow.

Moreover, the effect of brands such as Hyundai and especially Kia can hardly be overestimated. The Kia Niro has become the favorite of both business and private people in the Netherlands, while the Hyundai Kona also often finished high. On the other hand, the compact mid-size class was attacked by the Volvo XC40, a car that, like the Kia Niro, benefited from the widest possible range of powertrains and made ‘premium driving’ accessible to a wider audience at relatively affordable prices. Speaking of which: cars are getting more and more expensive, but that is apparently no reason for a remarkably large number of buyers and leasers to look for a lower segment. On the contrary: just look at how many new cars of half a ton or more you see in traffic jams in the morning. That XC40 will probably end in 5th place in 2022, brother Lynk&Co 01 in 9th place and a car like the Skoda Enyaq in 11th place. They all do better than the Golf, the Focus and the Astra.

However, the other side is also true. The A-segment may be largely dead in many other countries, but small cars cannot be towed in the Netherlands. In 2000, cars such as the Ford Ka (15) and Daewoo Matiz (18) were still real city rascals, which were purchased in many families as ‘little car for the side’. In 2022 this is different and models such as the Hyundai i10 (18), Toyota Aygo (6) and Kia Picanto (3) often serve as the only car and therefore daily transport. This applies even more to the models from the so-called B-segment, which are still below the Focus, Golf and Astra. A Polo of today is almost as big as the Golf ‘from then’, although this year it seems that the clearly tighter Peugeot 208 has taken the absolute win. The power of choice seems to be at work again, because the 208 is also available with fuel engines and a purely electric drive.