DVLA Release 2026 UK Licensed & SORN Nissan Figaro Stats

a bar chart displaying Nissan Figaros in the UK on and off the road from 2018 to 2026 Figaro Owners Club recently contacted the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to confirm their records of Nissan Figaros registered and licensed for use on UK roads. DVLA confirms their statistics are from August 2026.

As the UK is believed to have the largest number of Nissan Figaros on the road, this is always an interesting question to raise with the UK’s DVLA… but it is also one that we fear to ask as there has been a steady decrease in the number of Nissan Figaros on the road.

The latest news makes for difficult reading as there has been a further 5% decrease in the number of Nissan Figaros on the road since 2024, while there has been a slight 0.5% increase in the number of Nissan Figaros that are categorised as SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification).

This means that not only have the overall numbers of Nissan Figaros known to the DVLA in the UK continued to reduce (by 117 cars since the stats were last checked in May 2024) but that the number of cars that are registered as being off the road is now nearly 50% of the total cars – in 2018 this was 29%.

In the UK, owners can sometimes SORN their car in the winter months to save on paying road tax (which is now at the heady heights of £230 per annum) but it is less likely that owners would have done this by August. A number of cars that are SORN are also those that may be mid-restoration, so we do see a silver lining that the total number of SORN cars has only increased by 9 compared to 2024.

Here are the full figures, including data previously provided by the DVLA:

Type	2018 (Oct)	2019 (Dec)	2024 (May)	2026 (Aug)	Variance 2018 > 2026	Variance 2024 > 2026
Licensed	3,529	3,336	2,431	2,305	-34.7%	-5.2%
SORN	1,415	1,572	2,240	2,249	+58.9%	+0.4%
Total	4,944	4,908	4,671	4,554	-7.9%	-2.5%

Those new to these figures may wonder why the number of Nissan Figaros on the road reduced so significantly since 2019. We are of the view that this is due to the implementation of emission schemes in the UK. As a grey import Figaros are not compliant with schemes like ULEZ, meaning that owners are forced to pay an expensive daily charge for use of their car – sadly this saw many Figaros scrapped when this was introduced in London and other UK locations.

About the Statistics

Due to the car being a grey import (a product that is legally purchased in one overseas market and imported into another) it is rare for “Nissan Figaro” to have been listed on the documentation. Because of this, when we request information, we are careful to request information based on the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) as this is the only way we can receive accurate information. As an experiment this year we also requested information solely based on “Nissan Figaro” of which the total number of cars were just 235, which proves that using the VIN is far more reliable.

Should you have any thoughts on these latest stats – please do not hesitate to get in touch.