World August 2012: Discover the Top 150 best-selling models!

Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback

* See the Top 150 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Austin *

Yes, it’s that time of the month! With August figures now all in, I can share with you the Top 150 most popular cars around the planet in August. Remember this ranking is based on sales in the 60+ countries that are updated monthly on BSCB, except for Ford and Renault/Dacia where sales are official worldwide figures. In August the Toyota Corolla stays #1 by far with 92,384 sales, adding up to 782,600 after 8 months in 2012, ahead of the Ford Focus, already the best-selling passenger car in China this month, at 76,018 units and 651,299 year-to-date. Now I know that there is a lot of debate around what’s behind these two models’ figures so this month I thought I’d dig a little deeper… For all the detail of what is and isn’t included under the different nameplates please check the notes below the Table.

Ford Focus

The Corolla figure includes approximately 4,000 11th generation sold in Japan, 70,330 10th generation sold worldwide, 11,499 9th generation sold in China and 6,555 Auris/Blade sold in Europe and Japan. US sales of the 10th gen Corolla include the Matrix but no split is available (I estimate it at 4,000 Matrix this month), and the Auris is called Corolla in Australia and New Zealand but here too no split is available. So if you want a ‘pure’ 10th gen Corolla sedan worldwide figure for August I will say it is 64,830. As far as the Focus is concerned, the 76,018 sales figure for this month does include the hatchback and sedan versions, and an unconfirmed amount of 2nd generation models sold around the world, notably in Latin America and China.

VW Jetta

In third place this month we find the VW Jetta with 74,882 sales, 48,444 of which are the current 6th generation, sold as Sagitar in China. The overall figure still includes Chinese sales of the 2nd generation 1984 Jetta but these will be removed once the new Chinese Jetta kick-starts in September/October: the new model is totally separate from any other Jetta generation sold worldwide, and is actually closer to the current Polo sedan. If this is getting all too confusing, fear not and go check the China: Volkswagen who’s who article I wrote a couple of weeks ago.

The Hyundai Accent is sold as Solaris in Russia. Picture by zr.ru, all rights reserved.

Other highlights in the Top 10 include the Ford F-Series up one spot on July to #4 at 71,747 units, the Chevrolet Cruze up 6 to #5 with 71,235 sales, the Hyundai Elantra down 2 to a still respectable 6th spot at 70,204 units and the Hyundai Accent up 4 to #10 with 51,584 sales.

Chevrolet Prisma

Further down, the rest of the ranking definitely has a Brazilian scent to it: models popular in this booming market get a boost on the worldwide ladder this month: the VW Gol/Voyage is up to #16 vs. #23 year-to-date, the Fiat Palio/Siena is up to #21 vs. #49, the Fiat Uno is up to #30 vs. #58, the Chevrolet Celta/Prisma up to #44 vs. #83, the VW Fox up to #50 vs. #95 and the Fiat Strada up to #103 vs. #153.

Lada Granta

Other great performers this month include the Chevrolet Silverado up 11 spots on July to #19, the Hyundai Tucson/ix35 at #25 vs. #37 year-to-date, the Nissan Sentra/Sylphy/Pulsar/Tsuru up a huge 62 ranks to #22 thanks to the arrival of the new Sylphy in China, the Wuling Hongguang up 13 to #40, the Dodge Grand Caravan up 39 to #62 and the Chevrolet Colorado/S10 at #79 vs. #125 year-to-date.

Great Wall Haval H6. Picture by zr.ru, all rights reserved.

Finally, notice the Great Wall Haval H6 breaking into the worldwide Top 100 for the very first time at #91 with 14,836 sales and the Lada Granta making its very first appearance in the worldwide Top 150 at #119 and 12,583 units.

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Full August 2012 Top 150 Ranking Table below.