Top 20 Vehicles: March 2010
April 2, 2010 by Colin Bird
March’s top 20 vehicles are looking a lot like they did before the Toyota brake pedal and floor mat recalls, which shifted many popular Toyota makes downwards or off the list entirely.
Toyota has reclaimed many of its warranted positions on the top 20 chart. The Toyota Highlander, Toyota Prius and Toyota RAV4 reintroduced themselves to the top 20 in March.
Toyota’s most important nameplate, the Camry, is once again the best selling midsized sedan. The Toyota Camry was up 40.6% from last year. At 36,251 units, the Camry beat out its second place competition, the Honda Accord, by nearly 10,000 units! The Toyota Corolla remained the fourth bestselling vehicle.
Ford’s F-Series remained the number one selling car in America by a health margin. Ford Fusion fell to 4th place in the midsize sedan wars, behind the Altima. The Ford Focus is the third bestselling compact vehicle after the Corolla and Civic. The Ford Escape fell three positions and is no longer in the top 10.
The Honda Accord bumped down 3 positions to fifth place, though sales were still strong for Honda. Honda’s Civic also fell 3 positions, while the Honda CR-V fell 4.
Chrysler’s Dodge Charger and Dodge Caravan are no longer on the top 20 list, leaving Chrysler with one Dodge Ram to keep it in the playing. The Ram actually increased its position by 3 slots, despite being the only vehicle on the list to post negative growth in March.
GM’s mainstream brand Chevrolet maintained four positions on the chart. The Chevy Cobalt, the 10th bestselling vehicle in February, fell off the list completely for March. The Cobalt was replaced by the popular selling Equinox, which is now selling in the tens of thousands per month. The Malibu tumbled 5 positions, while the Impala dipped 2. The Silverado remains at its 3rd rank position.
Nissan Altima bumped up to 7th place. The Versa was up nearly +105.1% for the month, though actually fell down on the list.
Last month, Subaru’s Legacy/Outback sold well enough to show up on this list, but not anymore. The oddball this month is Hyundai. Hyundai’s Sonata clocked in 18,935 sales making the vehicle the fifth bestselling midsized sedan – taking that position away from the Chevrolet Malibu.
The nameplate mixture based off geographic region has shifted dramatically towards the imports for March. Domestics now make up 45% of the top 20 chart, down from 60% in February. Japanese went from a 40% to 50% share and now make up the majority of the top 20 vehicles. There is one Korean nameplate this month –the new Hyundai Sonata. Last month there was no Korea nameplates on the top 20.
| Vehicle | Mar 2010 | % Chg from Mar ‘09 |
YTD 2010 |
| Ford F-Series | 42,514 | +29.9% | 103,039 |
| Toyota Camry | 36,251 | +40.6% | 68,595 |
| Chevrolet Silverado | 29,886 | +27.1% | 72,480 |
| Toyota Corolla / Matrix | 29,623 | +33.1% | 63,740 |
| Honda Accord | 26,533 | +16.8% | 65,579 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 25,781 | +116.7% | 40,474 |
| Nissan Altima | 24,649 | +26.3% | 59,483 |
| Ford Fusion | 22,773 | +79.0% | 51,411 |
| Honda Civic | 22,463 | +8.8% | 53,627 |
| Ford Focus | 19,500 | +57.5% | 43,597 |
| Ford Escape | 19,182 | +52.5% | 45,091 |
| Hyundai Sonata | 18,935 | +52.6% | 31,747 |
| Dodge Ram | 17,818 | -7.8% | 38,042 |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 17,750 | +20.2% | 49,339 |
| Chevrolet Impala | 15,594 | +23.3% | 38,273 |
| Honda CR-V | 14,848 | +14.6% | 36,348 |
| Nissan Versa | 13,811 | +105.1% | 31,334 |
| Chevrolet Equinox | 12,805 | +193.6% | 30,379 |
| Toyota Highlander | 11,953 | +121.2% | 20,046 |
| Toyota Prius | 11,786 | +32.1% | 28,238 |
Data Source: www.motorintelligence.com via The Wall Street Journal
