USA February 2013: Is it the end of the tunnel for US sedans?

Can the Ford Fusion break a 16 year-draught for US passenger cars at home?

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 260 best-selling models! Click on title to see *

The US new car market slows down its crazy growth in February: up just 4% year-on-year to 1,192,249 registrations, which brings the year-to-date total after 2 months to 2,235,352 units, still up a very healthy 8% on 2012. 19th consecutive month of year-on-year growth for the Ford F-Series, still impressive at +15% and 54,489 sales and still followed by the Chevrolet Silverado at 41,643 units (+29%), the Toyota Camry at 31,270 (-9%) and the Honda Accord at 27,999, up a robust 35% year-on-year. But the big news is below…

The 1996 Ford Taurus is the last US sedan to have topped the Passenger Car ranking.

Have US carmakers (or at least Ford) finally cracked their own Passenger Car market again? In February, the Ford Fusion is up one spot to #5 with 27,875 sales, up 28% on February 2012. This is the Fusion’s 2nd highest monthly volume ever in the US below the 28,562 it hit in March 2012. It is refreshing to see an American sedan in the Top 5 at home (last ones were the Chevrolet Malibu in June 2012 and Cruze in June 2011). It’s hard to believe, but since the Ford Taurus in 1996, none of them has managed to top the US Passenger Cars rankings, giving away this title to the Toyota Camry 15 times and the Honda Accord once (in 2001). Can the Fusion manage the impossible in 2013 and beat the Camry?

Acura RLX

Other notable performances in February include the Ford Escape up two spots on January to #8 with 24,110 sales (also its best-ever February), the Ford Explorer up 67% to #16, Dodge Charger up 23 ranks to #30, Dodge Dart stable at #48, Buick Encore up 72 spots to #141 at 1,597 units. We welcome one new model in the US ranking this month: the Acura RLX, landing at a modest #251 spot with 16 sales.

Previous month: USA January 2013: Ford Fusion at highest in almost 2 years

One year ago: USA February 2012: Ford Focus and Toyota Prius shine

Full February 2013 Top 260 Ranking Table below.