Worlds Best Selling Cars

[Jitar]

Unsurprisingly the Corolla is still the best selling car in the world, despite some recent claims by Ford, according to bestsellingcarsblog.com. The world car sales for first half of 2012 is interesting, see: http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/2012/08/31/world-6-months-2012-discover-the-top-120-best-selling-models/

The top 20 are

1 Toyota Corolla

2 Ford Focus

3 VW Jetta

4 Toyota Camry

5 VW Golf

6 Ford Fiesta

7 Chevrolet Cruze

8 VW Passat

9 Nissan Tiida/Versa/Sunny

10 Ford F-Series

11 Hyundai Elantra

12 VW Polo/Vento

13 Hyundai Accent

14 Honda CR-V

15 Honda Civic

16 Suzuki Swift/Dzire

17 Wuling Sunshine

18 Toyota Hilux

19 Opel Astra/Buick Excelle XT/GT/Verano

20 Hyundai Sonata

Small cars form Toyota, Ford and VW dominate the top places but Thaicruze will be happy to see the Chev in there. Medium and large sedans have lost popularity in recent years and have moved down the list apart from the Toyota Camry at 4th place. Rear wheel drive drive cars are rare with only the pricey BMW 3 & 5 series and Benz C & E class on the list. BMW are doing something right with the both series ahead of the Mercedes models. Falcon and Commodore sales in Australia have always been too low to rate globally and the way their sales are going in Australia they may not be around at all much longer. It will be sad if the performance variants like HSV and FPV are consigned to history, they would be sadly missed.

The SUV sales are approaching the medium cars. Most are mid size like the CRV.

Large vehicles are doing well as pickups. Ford sold more F series pickups (mostly in the US and Canada) than many of the other car models world wide. Yanks certainly love their pickups but the rest of the world has caught on as well, judging by the sales of the Toyota Hilux. The Hilux is the worlds 18th biggest seller, and that's probably not including the Tundra and Tacoma pickups Toyota sell in the US. The popularity of the Hilux and pickups in general in the Thai market is assured by the taxation. Lots of Hiluxs are consumed (literally) by mines in Australia, but Toyota are selling heaps in many other markets as well. In fact the same web site suggests the Hilux is the biggest seller in no less than 18 countries in 2010, many being the more challenging locations.

[bkkjames]

Did I read somewhere that Thailand is No1 in the world for Truck sales?

[eaustev]

Did I read somewhere that Thailand is No1 in the world for Truck sales?

I remember hearing years ago that it was No. 2 to the US, but I have no way to substantiate that!!

[mogandave]

The Hilux probably includes the Tacoma (it was not on the list) but the Tundra would not be included as it is a different platform.

As far as the F-Series’ popularity, Rear wheel drive, 6-liter V8, 302HP, 278lb-ft, 6-speet AT, 8 KML that sells for well under $25K (THB800K), ‘nuff said?

Looks like:

Toyota 2.47M on the list

VW 2.32M

GM 2.32M

Ford 1.89M

Nissan 1.40M

Hyundai 1.38M

Honda 1.27M

[VocalNeal]

Skoda Octavia out sells BMW 3 series:-)

[Samedeepwaterasyou]

Skoda Octavia out sells BMW 3 series:-)

Well they are both German cars .

[funcat]

Skoda Octavia out sells BMW 3 series:-)

Well they are both German cars .

Skoda shares some engineering(engine) with the VW,but I don't think that you can call it a German car...

[BSJ]

17 Wuling Sunshine....is that a spelling mistake or is some company dumb enough to call a car that???

[anon210]

17 Wuling Sunshine....is that a spelling mistake or is some company dumb enough to call a car that???

It is a Chinese car:

http://www.wulingmotors.com/1-wuling-sunshine-3.html

[RevStar Zen]

I'm surprised at No.17-Wuling Sunshine made it to the board...Lol!

[Jitar]

Don't be surprised, the Wuling Sunshine (no spelling mistake) is made by a GM JV and apparently is a big sales success.

There are a few other Chinese models further down the big seller list. Car production and sales in China have boomed over the last 10 years and China now say they make far more cars and trucks than any other country, (double USA or Japanese production volume). Most of the Chinese models are cheap, basic and not seen outside of China. Very similar to Japan and Korea in the early days of their car industry....

[Jitar]

Did I read somewhere that Thailand is No1 in the world for Truck sales?

I remember hearing years ago that it was No. 2 to the US, but I have no way to substantiate that!!

Thailand can probably still lay claim to being the second largest pickup market after the USA. Well over 100,000 pickups per month are sold in the US compared to approx 45,000 in Thailand. Other large pickup markets like Austalia and South Africa trail well behind at less than a quater of that. The Thai figure includes PPV's, probably classified differently in other countries, but we still live in a market dominated by pick up as you can see on the road every day.

This is not really something to be proud of as it largely due to tax on imported cars.

[mogandave]

In all fairness to Ford, I think their bestselling car in the world claim is based on three quarters of sales, not two.

[eaustev]

I think also the Corolla wagon and maybe some other variations are sold under a different name in some markets. I think if you combine these sales Corolla is still number one, if you record them seperately then the Focus is the best seller.

[Jitar]

GM and Toyota had a similar debate over the claim to be biggest car manufacturer.

GM were counting cars from their Chinese JV where they are a minority shareholder.