USA December 2012: Ford F-Series at highest in over 5 years

The Ford F-Series lodges its best month since August 2007…

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 263 All-models ranking! Click on title to see! *

* See the Full Year 2012 post here *

As predicted 2 weeks ago, the US new car market is up 9% year-on-year in December to 1,355,998 registrations, bringing the Full Year 2012 total to 14,491,873 units, up a fantastic 14% on 2011 and the best year in the country since 2007. Ford and GM did go hard on incentives for their pick-up truck range as anticipated. The Ford F-Series lodges its highest monthly volume in over 5 years (since August 2007!) at 68,787 units and finishes the year at 645,316 sales, up 10% on 2011 and here too its best year since 2007.

The 2014 Chevrolet Silverado will go on sale in April 2013.

For the Chevrolet Silverado the impact is greater, with sales up 6% year-on-year to a huge 50,699 units, its first time above 50,000 monthly sales since August 2008 and enabling it to return to #2 overall above the Toyota Camry while it spent most of the year at #3… The Honda Civic delivers another outstanding month and is the best-selling Passenger Car in the country for the 2nd month running (and only the 3rd time ever after May 2008) with 33,118 sales, up a massive 61% on December 2011. The Toyota Camry stays #4 at 31,407 units (-6%) and is the most popular Passenger Car over the Full Year for the 11th consecutive time at 404,886 units, up a very healthy 31% on 2011.

2012 and 2013 Honda Civic

The Dodge Ram is up 16% to #5 while the Honda Accord also shines, up 67% year-on-year to #6. A slightly disappointing performance for the Nissan Altima down 8% to #9, however the Ford Focus continues to be very strong, breaking into the overall US Top 10 for the first time in a while at #10 with 22,604 sales, up 58% year-on-year and once again the best-selling US Passenger Car this month. Notice also the Chevrolet Cruze up 27% to #11, the Hyundai Elantra up 46% to #17 and the GMC Sierra up 7 spots on November to #18.

Toyota Avalon

Further down, the VW Passat is up to a best-ever #22 with a record 14,462 sales, now just below the VW Jetta at #21, the Lexus RX is up 12 ranks to #12, the Subaru Forester up 14 to #47, Nissan Pathfinder solid at #51 vs. #93 in the Full Year, Dodge Dart back up 9 spots to #66 vs. #33 in Canada and the Toyota Avalon up a whopping 84 ranks to #79. Among recent launches, notice the Ford C-Max down 17 to #85, the Subaru XV Crosstrek up 25 to #105, Cadillac ATS up 10 to #113, Cadillac XTS up 2 to #115 and the BMW X1 up 7 to #120.

Full Year post: USA Full Year 2012: Ford F-Series and Toyota Camry still the ones

December prediction: USA December 2012: Predicted at +9%, best year since 2007

Previous month: USA November 2012: Honda Civic #1 Passenger Car, hits highest ranking since August 2009

One year ago: USA December 2011: Ford F-Series at best volume in over 4 years

Full December 2012 Top 263 All-models Ranking Table below.