The Volkswagen Golf won favour to claim the AM Awards 2020 Used Car of the Year title – ending a four-year run of success for the Kia Sportage.

Offering a breadth of engine types, trim levels and even the fully electric e-Golf EV, the leading German hatchback delivers a potential breadth of appeal capable of attracting a wide range of used car customers onto a dealership forecourt.

With the all-new, eighth generation Golf set to arrive in UK car showrooms in the first quarter of this year and the MkVII accounting for around a third of Volkswagen’s 200,771 UK sales in 2019, the supply of used cars into the market looks set to remain plentiful.

Despite its prevalence in the market, residuals remain strong and the Volkswagen brand continues to draw potential buyers.

Auto Trader’s near-14,000 Volkswagen Golf listings at the time of writing range from a £250 2003 GT TDI with 135,000 miles on the clock, to a 1,000-mile nearly-new 300PS Volkswagen Golf R for £44,995.

From the ability to deliver close to 70 miles per gallon fuel economy to that of reaching 62mph in less than five seconds, the range has broad appeal.

The sheer range of Golfs available attributed to its ranking as Auto Trader’s most viewed vehicle during 2019.

The online classified website commissioned the ‘UK’s Most Popular Cars 2019’ report – a survey of 2,000 UK drivers with search data from ad views on Auto Trader’s website and app to reveal the most popular makes, models and features on the new car market – and found that the Golf had generated 1.3 million ad views last year.

In second place was the Ford Focus (846,212), with the UK’s best-selling new car, the Ford Fiesta, in third place with 721,306.

The eighth-generation Golf will dispense with the e-Golf – which was run as a long-term test vehicle by AM in 2018 – as the new ID3 reaches showrooms.

In the light of this, used versions of the EV could prove to be one of the Golf line-up’s big winners in 2020 as a result.

Finalists: Hyundai Tucson, Kia Niro, Kia Sportage, Mazda3, Peugeot 3008, Volkswagen Golf

Award sponsored by: Car Care Plan