Tuning interest does not follow the traffic, new study finds

BRITAIN’S tuning scene does not follow the traffic. New research finds the keenest interest per car sits with models that have all but vanished from the road, while the models that fill it draw far less.

The study weighs Google searches about modifying a car against the number of each model still taxed in the UK. It was run by Awesome, a car parts firm based in Manchester.

Counting searches alone favours the cars that sold in the biggest numbers. Divide the searches by the taxed cars and you get interest per car instead. On that measure two Nissans come out on top. The 350Z draws 2,623 searches a month for every 10,000 taxed cars, and the GT-R draws 2,622. The gap between them is under two searches per 10,000, so they are level in all but name. Only 3,240 350Zs and 1,831 GT-Rs are still taxed. A VW Golf draws 26, or about 100 times less per car.

Ten models with the most mod searches per taxed car

The Saxo that refuses to die

Fourth place breaks the pattern. The Citroen Saxo was never a sports car, and the last ones were built more than 20 years ago.

Just 2,201 Saxos are still taxed. Another 12,068 are logged as off the road, so about 85% of the ones left are not being driven. The model still draws 340 searches a month.

The Ford Escort tells the same story, with 13,144 taxed cars against 35,686 off the road.

The plain cars that punch above their weight

The same holds for the cars people commute in. The Honda Civic leads the models with more than 100,000 taxed cars, on 50.2 searches per 10,000. The SEAT Ibiza is next on 43.9, then the Audi A1 on 36.1.

The Honda Jazz is the surprise. It comes eighth in that group on 27.5, ahead of the Mini Cooper on 22.2 and the Ford Fiesta on 15.4. It was sold as sensible transport, not as a performance car.

Family SUVs fill the bottom. The Nissan Qashqai came last of the 40 models on 7.3 searches per 10,000 taxed cars. The Kia Sportage is just above it on 8.1.

The Golf and the trim-name effect

Scale tells a different story from rate. Counted on raw searches alone, the Golf leads the whole 40-car field with 2,480 a month, ahead of the Ford Fiesta on 1,960. With 953,336 taxed in the UK, it draws more mod searches than any other model in the study.

Most of that demand sits with the fast versions. Searches for ‘vw golf’ terms come to 570 a month. ‘Golf R’ terms add another 1,400 and ‘Golf GTI’ terms a further 510. The fast models make up more than three quarters of all Golf searches.

Two related cars land in the top ten per taxed car. The Audi S3 is eighth on 182 and the VW Scirocco is ninth on 161. Both are built on platforms the Golf shares.

The same trim-name effect shows up elsewhere. Nearly half of all Yaris mod searches are for the GR Yaris, and only 5,068 of those are taxed here.

What the results suggest

Put together, the numbers show no neat link between mod interest and how common a car is. The models with the keenest interest per taxed car are scarce ones, and five of the top six are sports cars. The models with the most searches overall are mainstream cars with a fast version attached. Being fast is not a requirement either. A supermini that went out of production more than 20 years ago came fourth, and the Honda Jazz beat both the Mini Cooper and the Ford Fiesta.

"What stands out is that modification interest does not simply follow the number of cars on the road. The 350Z and GT-R are obvious enthusiast cars, but the Saxo is the really interesting result. There are relatively few of them left, yet people are still searching for ways to modify them.

"The Golf tells another story. It does not top the list once you account for the number of cars taxed, but the sheer volume of searches shows just how big the modification market around a mainstream car can become. Once you separate the Golf GTI and Golf R from the standard Golf, you can see how much of that interest is driven by the enthusiast versions. The Audi S3 and VW Scirocco sitting in the top ten point the same way.

"Some of the biggest modification communities have grown around cars that were fairly ordinary when they were new."

John Glover, Operations Director at Awesome