If you asked someone who didn’t know anything about cars what the best-selling vehicle in the United Kingdom was I bet they’d say something stereotypical, like the Mini Cooper, or maybe something obvious like the Toyota Corolla. Ask a car person and they’d probably tell you the Puma, because it’s usually the Ford Puma. Not so in March!
Most of the site today is going to be a distraction from all that’s going on, because I think that’s what a lot of us probably need. It’s not that all of it isn’t important, which is why The Morning Dump is going to talk about it as it relates to cars. Specifically, I’m going to talk about how this is creating massive uncertainty for the people who buy and sell cars seem to face every day. It’s also possible this is just because I need a break from thinking about the Astros giving up an eight-spot in one inning to the Rockies after I fell asleep.
What’s going to happen with energy? Will inflation rise? Will consumers even notice? Will it lead to more electric car purchases? It depends on where you live.
Energy Prices Keep Going Up, But The Impacts Are Delayed
Much of the war in the Middle East centers around access to the Strait of Hormuz, which is a narrow path around Iran and Oman that controls the flow of both refined and unrefined petroleum products needed by parts of the world.
As Bloomberg‘s Javier Blas explained to the Odd Lots podcast, the basic concept is that your future depends a lot on how reliant you are on other people for your energy and how close/far you are from that energy source. The United States has reserves and is a net exporter of oil, so it’ll probably never run out of oil, even if prices go higher. China has both its own sources and massive reserves. If you’re in Australia or Indonesia or even South Korea, it’s a bit of a tougher situation.
As Blas points out, there’s been a bit of an oil glut lately, so there’s a lot of excess fuel in the system that we’re still working through. What happens when that runs out is anyone’s guess, as is the length of the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and the length of the war.
So far, though, consumers in the United States have been relatively calm. Car sales conditions were mild through the first two months of the year before turning south in March. There are other factors to consider, as Cox Automotive’s Jeremy Robb points out:
New-vehicle sales rose to a 16.3 million SAAR in March, up from February’s weather-depressed pace but down 8.7% year over year against a tough comparison. Last year’s market saw elevated tariff-induced pull-ahead volume that will not be repeated this year, making year-over-year comparisons more challenging through the second quarter. Fleet sales remain a bright spot, while retail share declined.
In consumer confidence, forward-looking expectations fell and inflation expectations surged to 6.2% from 5.5%—the highest since May 2025—as the Middle East conflict keeps energy prices elevated. For now, tax refund dollars are providing a meaningful bridge through a softening labor market, but the spring selling season will test whether that support can offset rising inflation fears and weakening confidence in the months ahead.
We are now entering a second year of a White House that has tested the limits of executive power, so we’re comparing this year to a 2025 that was dominated by tariffs and massive changes to subsidies. Is up that good? Is down that bad? It’s harder to say than usual.
Based on the data, the average consumer in the United States doesn’t seem as tentative as you’d maybe guess given all the negative headlines about fuel prices, and an impending energy crisis. As Robb points out, we’ll learn a lot in the next couple of months about how long that can last.
Consumers elsewhere seem to ready to jump, though.
Brits Go For Plug-In Hybrids, Australians For EVs
Would you believe that the best-selling car in the United Kingdom in March was the Jaecoo 7? I buried this story a little bit because I needed the setup. Will oil be cheap? Will electricity? If you buy a plug-in hybrid you get the best (or worst, depending on who you ask) of both worlds.
Plug-In Hybrids (PHEVs) are quite popular in China and other markets, even if adoption has been slow in the United States. According to the latest registration data, the UK car market had its best March since 2019. Massively leading the way in growth were PHEVs, which grew by 46.9% year-over-year and improved market share to 13.0%. BEVs grew by 24.2%, though the 22.6% market share is shy of the government’s goal of 33% this year.
While the Ford Puma is still in the lead through Q1, it’s barely ahead of the Jaecoo 7, a plug-in hybrid from a subbrand of Chinese automaker Chery. In March, though, 10,064 Jaecoo 7s were sold, to just 9,193 Ford Pumas. For all the talk of BYD, not a single BYD broke the top 10. I went to Britain a couple of years ago and pointed out that Chinese automakers had a huge advantage there, partially because the UK doesn’t have a huge manufacturing footprint and isn’t subject to EU trade policy.
A lot of this is cost. A Jaecoo 7 plug-in hybrid costs about £35,000, compared to nearly £40,000 for a Tucson PHEV and £42,000 for a Tiguan PHEV. According to Jaecoo, 85% of sales were of the plug-in hybrid. Will this last? Because of the way the British car market works, a decent number of these sales probably were ordered ahead of the conflict with Iran, so it’s hard to say.
While we’re in the Commonwealth, Australian EV purchases also surged in Australia, although so did PHEVs. Australia has some of the highest fuel prices in the world, so this makes sense.
Chinese Automaker BYD Put On ‘List Of Shame’ In Brazil
Chinese automaker BYD has made a big push into Latin America, including building a plant in Brazil’s Bahia state. That plant came to the attention of the local authorities after 163 workers building it were found to be working in “slavery-like conditions,” according to government investigators.
BYD denied the claims, but the country’s Labor Ministry has added the company to a list of shame following the scandal as Reuters reports:
The list, published by Brazil’s Labor Ministry, carries further reputational risk for the automaker in its biggest market after China.
It also bars BYD from obtaining certain types of loans from Brazilian banks, but does not affect the operation of its sole auto plant in the country that the workers were hired to build.
It’s also been reported that BYD is facing calls for a ‘forced labor’ investigation in Hungary.
VW Happy With Rivian Software, Though Who Knows When We’ll See It
The massive $5+ billion deal between Volkswagen and Rivian was a lifeline to the American automaker, but also an admission that VW’s massive investments in software was mostly a bust. VW of America boss Kjell Gruner was at a roundtable in New York last week and spoke well of how the systems seemed to work.
“From my own experience, I’ve seen the platform,” Gruner said. “I’ve used it in one of my previous lives. It’s the right technology. So I’m glad to see the progress there.”
Great! When will consumers get to see it here in a product?
VW Group said it used the upcoming ID Every1 EV, along with unnamed Audi and Scout models, as reference vehicles for the testing. VW does not plan to offer the ID Every1 in the U.S. and it’s unclear which Audi vehicle would adopt the technology first.
Gruner reiterated that the joint venture’s software cannot be uploaded to an existing vehicle, meaning it’ll only be used on future platforms.
So, a while then…
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
How have only 1,300 people listened to this song? It’s “Duchess” by Nashville indie folk artist Erin Rae. It’s a mood.
The Big Question
What car would you buy, new or old, if you lived in the UK?
Top graphic images: DepositPhotos.com; Jaecoo
“The Big QuestionWhat car would you buy, new or old, if you lived in the UK?”
A manual transmission, Big-block El Camino.
TBQ:
If it’s not my money? I’m buying a Tuthill 911K
If it’s my money? There was a manual, F31 335i Touring for sale on Pistonheads a while back…
TBQ: Mazda 323F
We’re currently tossing up between a BYD Seal and a Tesla Model 3. Do we go with the company accused of slavery or the one led by a man who is actively supporting the corrosion and collapse of western civilisation?
Perhaps we’ll go for the Zeekr X7 instead (even though I promised myself we wouldn’t get another SUV).
Guess its like a coin toss. China has a brutal and repressive government and has millions locked up in camps. But its not like we in the US have any room to talk.
I guess it’s often the case that modern technology is built on sub-standard working conditions. I’d be nervous about doing a supply-chain analysis for basically any modern smartphone.
Ironically my realisation that BYD and the other Chinese makes probably don’t have the squeakiest of records has actually made the idea of getting a Tesla slightly more palatable.
I wish the Japanese, Euro or Korean makes were selling an actually competitive sedan-shaped EV in this country!
Ioniq 6?
Out of my price range, unfortunately.
Hooray for the image alt text (no sarcasm… props for actually using it), or I still wouldn’t know what a Jaecoo 7 looked like.
I’d buy a Toyota Corolla.
Were I to find myself in the UK, I’d want something driven to shuttle myself between the West End, Brighton and a proper country house. A Rolls-Royce seems a bit vulgar these days, so I’d say one or two examples of the pride of Bois Colombes, a Hispano-Suiza J12. Ideally it would be inherited, originally commissioned by a childless aunt and uncle to transport out to Sissinghurst for the occasional “couples weekend” with Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West.
Boyfriend is british. Every time i go there there are more and more Jaecoos and Omodas in the Sainsburys parking lot. I think it might be where they reproduce.
Presumably Range Rovers and Mercedes-Benz estates are still rutting around at Waitrose.
Morris Minor. Easier to work on than a classic Mini and there was a convertible.
You should take down that blurb about BYD or you’re gonna get threatened with another lawsuit.
Better stock up on bottles of Liquid Lawyer.
I carry a pint around of it in a Stanley just in case.
I’m sure they sell it by the case.
But wait! For a limited time only, buy one case of Liquid Lawyer and get another absolutely free!
I’m one of about half a dozen people who have brought a Triumph Acclaim from the UK to the US but as far as I know nobody has brought one from the US back to the UK so I’d do that with mine.
This, of course, presupposes that they’d let it back in.
Funny, I also know someone with a Triumph Acclaim over here in the states.
East Coast, I presume? My understanding is that all of the others are there.
Yup, I’m in MD
Please pass along my regards as the guy who has one in Seattle.
What’s special enough about the Acclaim to want to import one? A ten second search tells me that it’s a fwd sedan from British Leyland. Surely, there’s gotta be something cool or unique about it?
It’s the last Triumph-badged automobile and the first result of the long-running collaboration between Honda and BL/Rover/etc. but for the most part I’m not in a position to defend any of my automotive decisions as fundamentally sound.
UK denizen here: I’d well believe it. Jaecoos are everywhere. I see them all the time.
I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme seeing that top image.
I’d buy a Ginneta I think.
Other peoples money would be best spent on a 1939 Lagonda V12.
Swift GT and a Sinclair C5.
If it had to be only one, Reliant Robin since it’s basically a mashup of those two. /S
Ford KA, since its so small I should be able to park easily and just use it if I am going to the grocery store or some errands that I need a car. Everything else, take the Tube or a taxi. Gas is very expensive there so the less I can use, the better.
Jaguar XKE, Series 1. Or Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger.
QOTD
I’d buy a black Capri, just like Uncle Adrian has been searching for.
Then I’d fit it with some extremely gaudy chrome wheels and a big spoiler and drive it past his house.
I like to live dangerously.
You better put SsangYong badges on it.
The recently retired Fiesta ST
Big question: I wouldn’t buy a car. I’ve been there and just riding around with everyone driving on the left inside of the right freaked me out. I’ve been told that you adjust, but all it would take is one time turning left to avoid oncoming traffic instead of right and it would be game over.
Between a good train system (compared to the US), Good public transportation, more pedestrian friendly towns, and the famous Black Cabs, I don’t think I would bother with a car in the UK.
Best answer
Same for other European cities I have visited. Who needs a car in Milan, Rome, Athens? The rural farmlands, absolutely.
Yeah, I would LOVE a car in Europe. Something small that can handle well. I can’t imagine visiting Italy without having a car to explore. It’s just the left hand driving scares the tar out of me in the UK. Maybe I would adapt, but I would have to be there a while to adjust to the different traffic pattern to try.
I’ve driven in Milan, multiple times, and it absolutely SUCKS. It was kinda fun the first time since it was so novel, but after that it became awful. Public transit all the way.
I live in the UK, and have driven abroad in LHD cars on the right, and have even driven LHD cars here in the UK, on the left.
I haven’t even died a little bit yet.
Also, there are a lot of remote places in the UK that don’t have much public transport or taxis, etc. The black cab is just a London-based stereotype (there’s a lot more to see outside of London!)
I know because I live in one of those remote places and rely on cars to get anywhere.
Even not-very-remote places have zero public transport. I grew up in a little village in the Cotswolds, and there was one bus a week, which came on a Tuesday. There was no return bus until Saturday. The nearest regular public transport is over an hours walk away.
On the plus side it’s a bloody beautiful part of the world…as long as you have a car.
That sounds wonderful. Just one question about the area based on TV shows I’ve seen. Is it possible to walk a dog there and not find a body?
I know that a lot of UK residents have no problem adapting to driving on the right.
However, I suspect this is a UK thing. How many Brits go to France or Spain for summer holidays? Even if they don’t drive much there, they get exposed to riding around with the traffic on the right not the left. When a British driver drives in Mainland Europe, they have to drive on the right and so they sort of become ambidextrous drivers as a result.
Me? I’ve spent 1 week in a country that drives on the left and I rode the train most of the time (PS, I slept in London, Portsmouth, a train ride between London and Edenborough, Aberdeen, Wick, and Glascow, so I didn’t stick to London by any means). Because I didn’t spend much time on the roads, I don’t have any exposure to even riding on the left much at all.
Now, if I was relocating there, I might have to learn to drive on the left. But maybe not. My company is actually UK based and all their offices are not far from downtown in cities served by mainline rail.
It’s the same reason why Americans hold a lot fewer passports. The distance from Kiev to London would get you from Boston to Denver, speaking in very approximate terms, and that’s still a thousand miles from the west coast.
I mean I would love to visit Europe more. However, there is a LOT of America that I haven’t explored. Road tripping in the US isn’t that expensive and there are a million cool things to find if you have the time and a complete lack of planning.
Some Boston accents would be about as intelligible in Denver as if they were speaking Ukrainian, and I have no idea what the hell drivers are doing in Boston.
When I was in China in the 1980s I was told the biggest vehicle gets the center of the road and the right of way. If that was the rule, it was scrupulously observed
But you would need a shooting brake for the estate.
Thank you for the spot of fun. Gimme a Capri Mk2 or Mk3, a Sierra XR4i or a Ka. Don’t know why all I can think of is Ford, but I hope our folks on CVN-78 will be safe and make the right decisions.
Any and every oddball old British classic I could get my hands on. Bond Bug, why not? Clan Crusader, you bet. Ogle SX1000, totally. Unipower GT, absolutely. Etc, etc, etc.
So many great choices for cars that I love if I lived in the UK. If buying new it would have to be a GR Yaris, as I have a GR Corolla on order to replace my FK8 Civic Type R. If buying used it is no doubt a MK2 Ford Focus RS in the green. If it isn’t obvious, I love a crazy hot hatch.
Bentley S3 Continental Mulliner Park Ward Drophead Coupe.
(The “Chinese Eye” Continental)
I’d take it to Halcyon or Lunaz to have it converted to an EV.
My favorite post RR Bentley
“… a distraction from all that’s going on …”
Look, I try to stay out of the news cycle as much as possible and appreciate this place as a haven, so I understand the noble goal of not talking about it as much as possible. But maybe instead of referring to “stuff going on” we should ackowledge there’s an absolute fucking lunatic who has at best permanently damaged this country’s international standing or at worst is going to get us all killed.
I was thinking about that this morning…we’re past the point where we can just ignore what’s going on in the different spheres of our lives.
I need the break… I just doomscroll real journalism sites and want to tear my hair out. This is a refuge for many of us. I fully appreciate the team here trying to keep everything as neutral as possible.
Point taken and generally agreed upon; however, I do find it difficult to get anywhere by staying in neutral.
To be deeply, tragically honest, a lot of what I write keeps me from doomscrolling. My wife is the one who is always scrolling through the news, reading all of the terrible headlines, and watching all sorts of hate in real time.
I try to keep looking at trains, planes, motorcycles, and other vehicles to distract myself with.
I have a trans friend. Things are toxic and I’m glad she out of FL. Not that it’s better elsewhere.
I think you are underestimating.
I think the link to Defector was appropriate and thankfully not paywalled.
Until there is some action to take, I’m fine with keeping the doomerism to a minimum.
I’m less concerned about fuel prices at the moment than I am about the president so gleefully tweeting about committing war crimes and genocide. Did he just threaten to nuke Iran? That how I read “a whole civilization will die tonight”.
Maybe he heard of Croesus at Delphi and isn’t talking about the Iranian civilization…
I just learned about this 2 days ago, it’s so fitting.
I’m still reeling from The Night Chicago Died. “Brother, what a night it really was.”