Volvo Cars have seen a consistent rise in sales figures over the course of 2018 with strong growth in all of its key regions of the US, China, and Europe. Sales are up 14.5 percent globally compared to the same January to August period last year with the US market outperforming all others with a stellar 32.9 percent increase. Put into actual numbers that means 65,214 Volvo vehicles were sold in the first eight months of 2018 compared to 49,063 last year.

The best-selling model in the Volvo range continues to be the XC60 SUV, it accounted for 116,381 of the 411,931 total vehicles sold in 2018 so far. It performed far worse in 2017 where 5,304 XC60s found homes, although this is mostly due to customers holding out for the new version to be released.

The larger XC90 is the second-best selling model in the range and also posted a 15 percent improvement over last year's figures with 60,695 units sold so far. The August sales figures in the US showed a 12.2 percent increase over the 2017 numbers and this was thanks to strong demand for the XC60 and XC90 SUV.

American motorists are not big fans of wagons and the V40 and its Cross Country twin are not offered on our market, they did however perform strongly in other regions closely following the XC90s sales figures.

We do however have the larger V60 and V90 wagons to pick from and they are a great alternative not only to the pricier SUV equivalents but also to the capable but predictably styled German rivals. But then we are preaching to the converted according to these latest sales figures.