UK picture-car catalogue snapshot (October 2026)

Method

• Sample: every public vehicle page on carseen.co/cars at the October 2026 snapshot used for this page.
• Unit: one listing = one vehicle page. A vehicle can appear in more than one type facet (for example Classic and American), so type totals can exceed the number of unique listings.
• Source of truth: the live catalogue and its facet indexes. Decade and make are taken from listing metadata. “Year unknown” is used when a year is not set.
• What this is not: these figures are not a market share of UK film spend, not “most requested” rankings, and not booking volumes. Separately, CarSeen’s desk research on the size of the UK picture-vehicle hire market remains labelled as estimates where no official series exists.

Headline findings

Complete sentences for citation.

1. As of the October 2026 snapshot, CarSeen’s public catalogue listed 2,500+ picture cars available for productions to brief across the UK.
2. Classic vehicles were the largest type facet, with 1,654 classic listings in the same snapshot.
3. The 1970s was the largest decade bucket in the catalogue, with 376 listings, ahead of the 1980s (372) and the 1960s (368).
4. The 1990s still accounted for 355 listings, close to the 1960s total, which undercuts the idea that only classic decades are stocked for period drama.
5. Ford was the most common make, with 341 listings. The same snapshot included Mercedes-Benz (138), Volkswagen (128), BMW (124) and Land Rover (117).
6. Specialist screen categories included 93 police or emergency listings, 165 replica or film-car listings, 32 taxis and 27 military vehicles.
7. American vehicles numbered 482 listings, reflecting demand for US period and character cars on UK shoots.

Decade breakdown

The decade names link to the matching catalogue pages. Public marketing copy uses 2,500+ picture cars as the published car count. “Year unknown” is the bucket for listings with no year set.

Selected type facets

A vehicle can appear in more than one type facet, so these rows are not a partition of the catalogue.

How to use this research

• Browse the live catalogue: picture cars.
• Period and type landing pages, for example 1990s cars and police and emergency vehicles. The decade and type tables above link the other facets in this snapshot.
• Send a production brief.
• Related practical guides:
  • Period-correct cars for a 1990s or 2000s drama
  • Number plates for filming: dating, period plates and the rules
  • Filming with police cars and uniforms in the UK: what the rules say
  • ULEZ and the Congestion Charge: what period picture cars pay on a London shoot

Citation