– The petrol Renault Clio has jumped to the highest of the sub-£10,000 retail margin chart after months of SUV dominance
– Hatchbacks have been climbing since December and the Clio is the clearest sign that compact stock is driving profit
– Competition for clean, retail-ready Clio stock is heating up, last 12 months’s profit profile already shifting.
– The petrol Renault Clio has jumped to the highest of the sub-£10,000 retail margin chart after months of SUV dominance
– Hatchbacks have been climbing since December and the Clio is the clearest sign that compact stock is driving profit
– Competition for clean, retail-ready Clio stock is heating up, last 12 months’s profit profile already shifting.
The petrol Renault Clio has emerged as an early-2026 profit star for used automobile dealers, topping Dealer Auction’s latest Retail Margin Monitor for vehicles retailing under £10,000.
Dealer Auction said the Clio took the crown within the sub-£10,000 retail bracket as hatchbacks returned to favour after months of SUV-led profit performance.
The Renault was not the one compact model to interrupt through: the diesel BMW 1 Series ranked third for retail margin, while the petrol Peugeot 208 was a brand new entry in ninth place.
Top 10 models by retail margin – for models retailing at <£10,000
The Clio’s rise comes because the market starts to re-balance away from a period where SUVs continuously dominated the highest margin charts.
Dealer Auction said the move began in December 2025, when hatchbacks including the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Polo began to seem among the many top profit performers.
By January 2026, it said compact models were also disrupting the over-£10,000 bracket, with recent entries from the Vauxhall Corsa, Hyundai i10 and i20 helping hatchbacks take 40% of the model share.
Kieran TeeBoon, marketplace director at Dealer Auction, said the Clio’s performance was a part of a wider trend dealers shouldn’t ignore.
“After spending months within the shadow of SUVs, hatchbacks are back,” he said. “Their profit performance shall be food for thought for dealers, as competition for quality stock intensifies. It actually shows how briskly today’s market is moving, dealers can’t just depend on last 12 months’s top performers.”
While the Clio led the sub-£10,000 chart, Dealer Auction said SUVs are still delivering strong margins. The Peugeot 2008, 2025’s top profit-maker, held fourth place within the under-£10,000 rankings, and the Nissan Qashqai continued to perform strongly across each retail brackets.
The Qashqai also remained a fast seller, shifting in a median of 26 days. Within the over-£10,000 segment, the Land Rover Discovery Sport, Hyundai Tucson and Volkswagen Tiguan led the best way, with the Discovery Sport the highest performer on a median margin of £3,990.
Dealer Auction also pointed to recent buying opportunities through its ‘Best Buy’ metric, which ranks vehicles using a formula based on price competitiveness against CAP Clean, average retail margin and speed to sale.
Top 10 makes by retail margin – for models retailing at <£10,000
Using that measure, the MG ZS was identified as the highest “hidden gem” under £10,000 for January, while the all-electric Nissan LEAF was highlighted as one to look at.
For vehicles under £10,000, BMW topped Dealer Auction’s chart, followed by Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. Land Rover dropped out of the sub-£10,000 list after leading it for six months, but continued to dominate the premium end, retaining the highest spot within the over-£10,000 chart for the thirteenth consecutive month.
Dealer Auction said it has enjoyed a robust begin to 2026, reporting a record monthly total retail value of vehicles sold at £46m and record estimated trade profit of £1.6m in January.
Nevertheless, it warned the broader used market faces stock challenges ahead. Autotrader’s Marc Palmer recently warned that five- and six-year-old cars are set to fall by 25% to 30% this 12 months, a shift that would push dealers to rethink the age, fuel type and models they aim.
TeeBoon said the Clio’s chart-topping performance is a reminder that probably the most profitable stock mix can change quickly. “With so many alternative forces at play, it’s no time to be complacent,” he said.
“Dealers, particularly independents who construct their business on second and third-owner vehicles, are having to make use of all their experience and knowledge, in addition to the information that’s available to them, to embrace these evolving market dynamics.”
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This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
