This Is the Most Popular Used Car in America

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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This Is the Most Popular Used Car in America

© Ford Motor Co.

The average lifetime of an American car has grown to over 11 years. Much of that is attributed to high-quality manufacturing and better dealer services. Even though cars last longer, Americans bought 17 million new cars a year for five years, until the pandemic. In 2020, the number dropped to about 13 million. People often trade in their used cars when they buy new ones, or they sell them on their own. The brands of used car ownership are not very different from new ones, at least at the top of the lists. The most popular models have stayed popular, new or used, for years, if not decades.

Most Popular Cars in 2020 – iSeeCars.com, the three most popular cars are the American brand full-sized pickups. Number one on that list is Ford’s F-150, ahead of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and the Ram 1500. The F-150 has been the most popular new vehicle in the United States for over four decades.

In terms of new car sales last year, the F-150 was in the first spot again, followed by the Silverado. The Ram ranked fifth, behind the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V. The presence of the RAV4 and CR-V points to a new trend in American car sales. People have moved sharply from sedans and coupes to sport utility vehicles and crossovers.

The used car list tells a similar story. After the big three pickups, the Nissan Rogue, a small SUV, ranks fourth.
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After that, the lists begin to change. On the news car list, the Hyundai Tucson and Chevrolet Equinox are in the top 10. Each is a small SUV or crossover. The used car list, on the other hand, includes high-mileage, low-priced sedans that are still popular, inexpensive ways to get around. The Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima and Nissan Sentra all make the top 10 used car list.

Rank Used Car Model New Car Model
1 Ford F-150 Ford F-150
2 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
3 Ram Pickup 1500 Toyota RAV4
4 Ford Escape Honda CR-V
5 Nissan Rogue Ram Pickup 1500
6 Honda Civic Hyundai Tucson
7 Toyota Camry Honda Civic
8 Chevrolet Equinox Toyota Camry
9 Nissan Altima Chevrolet Equinox
10 Nissan Sentra Toyota Tacoma

The data overall shows that there is one constant. According to iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer, “Used pickup truck sales remained strong and even grew in sales during the pandemic, while all other segments declined, as consumers needed them for work.” This trend has gone on for so long, there is little reason to think it will be broken.

Methodology: iSeeCars.com analyzed over 8 million used car sales from model years 2015 to 2019 and over 4.9 million new car sales in 2020. Each model’s share of used car sales and new car sales within each metro area and state was mathematically modeled to determine the best-selling cars in each geographical region. Heavy-duty vehicles were excluded from further analysis.

These are the new cars most likely to break down.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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