The title gave away 7,300 copies and sold just over 100,000 at UK news-stands, according to ABC figures for July to December 2008 released this week.
Harry Metcalfe, editorial director at Dennis-owned Evo, said he is surprised the BBC title doesn't do better, given the success of the television series.
He said: "When the Top Gear TV programme has an audience of between four and five million, I am surprised the magazine doesn't attract more readers."
However, Peter Phippen, BBC Worldwide's managing director, singled out the magazine as one of the publisher's star performers.
Meanwhile, Media Week owner Haymarket's What Car? was down 14.6% year on year, to 92,102, while Dennis Publishing's Auto Express fell 10% year on year and 5.1% period on period, to 73,644.
Patrick Fuller, publishing director at Haymarket Motoring, said: "The new car market is down between 20 and 30 per cent and, as the UK's leading car buyer's guide, What Car? is bound to suffer. In that context, our decline is better than it might have been and our performance in January across print and web has been encouraging."
Haymarket's Classic & Sports Car registered a circulation drop of 3.3% period on period and 8.6% year on year, to 74,008, while Bauer Media's Practical Classics and Car Restorer was down 2.1% period on period and 3.2% year on year to 57,758.
Performance Car, the one-year-old title from Unity Media, did not register an ABC figure.
Heading into 2009, Evo's Metcalfe said he believes the motoring sector will consolidate as a number of smaller titles fold, and supermarkets will re-evaluate their magazine stock.