With the full year of auto sales finally reported, 2016 was one for the record books. Total sales reached 17,550,351, up 0.4%. There were 307 sales days this year, versus 308 in 2015. Of the top 20 best-selling vehicles for the year, the leading three were the full-sized pickups from the Big Three automakers. These were the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) F-150, which has been the best-selling vehicle in America 40 years in a row, followed by General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Silverado and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.’s (NYSE: FCAU) Ram. Notably, F-150 sales were nearly 80% of Silverado and Ram sales combined.
Small Japanese cars ruled the list of the best-selling cars, despite a consumer move toward sport utility vehicles and pickups. Toyota had four vehicles on the list, Honda had three, Nissan had two and Subaru had one.
Among the domestics, Ford had four, GM had three and Fiat Chrysler had two. Also, South Korea’s Hyundai had one.
The consumer appetite for smaller, lighter, low-priced, high-mileage cars has not disappeared This list includes perennial best-sellers Camry, Civic, Corolla, Accord, Altima and Elantra. These are generally priced around $20,000. One the other hand, some companies, particularly GM, misread the small car market and paid for it with bloated inventory and unanticipated production cuts.
These are the 20 best-selling cars and light trucks in America for 2016
F-150 820,799
Chevy Silverado 574,876
Dodge Ram 489,418
Toyota Camry 399,616
Honda Civic 366,927
Toyota Corolla 360,483
Honda CR-V 357,335
Toyota RAV 4 352,139
Honda Accord 345,225
Nissan Rogue 329,904
Nissan Altima 307,380
Ford Escape 307,069
Ford Explorer 248,507
Chevy Equinox 242,195
Chevy Malibu 227,881
GMC Sierra 221,681
Jeep Grand Cherokee 212,273
Hyundai Elantra 208,319
Toyota Highlander 191,379
Subaru Outback 182,898
Data come from the Wall Street Journal, via Motor Intelligence.
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