World Full Year 2012: All the #1 in 170 countries!

The Toyota Hilux is estimated to be #1 in 31 countries in 2012, including 21 in Africa.

* See the full list of 63 models #1 in at least one country by clicking on the title! *

Now that most official sales data is in for the Full Year 2012 and before I share with you an exclusive worldowide models ranking, we can start by looking at the #1 models around the world last year. This list is exclusive to BestSellingCarsBlog, you will not find it anywhere else! To refresh your memory you can see the 2011 summary here. Note this is not a reflection of the highest worldwide sales volumes which will be the object of another post, only how many times a specific model manages to rank #1 in any country. If no 2012 ranking is available, the most recent data is used and for only a couple of countries I couldn’t allocate a #1 as information was too scarce.

The Chery QQ (new generation pictured) is estimated to be #1 in Myanmar in 2012.

Toyota places no less than 10 models in pole position in at least one country, compared to 8 in 2011 – the Fortuner (in Vietnam) and Avensis (in Estonia) being added to the list. The next best performing brands are Ford, Chevrolet, Hyundai and Volkswagen which all place 4 models at #1. Notable new members of the #1 club in 2012 are the Chevrolet Sail (in Chile), Fiat Linea (in Turkey), Chery QQ (estimated #1 in Myanmar), Renault Sandero (in Colombia) and VW Up! (in Denmark).

The Fiat Linea enters the #1 club in 2012 thanks to its Turkish performance.

The Toyota Hilux is still by far the model to rank #1 in the most amount of countries: an estimated 32, albeit including 21 in Africa where the volumes are very low. Out of the estimated 31 countries where the Hilux is potentially #1, 6 have been confirmed with official data. The Toyota Corolla is estimated to be #1 in 15 countries, including 3 confirmed. The Corolla is the only model to rank #1 in at least one country of each continent: Africa, Asia, Europe, America and Oceania.

An estimated 5 countries have crowned the Lada Priora in 2012.

The VW Golf follows, #1 in 10 countries, 9 of them confirmed and all in Europe, ahead of  the Toyota Yaris/Vios #1 in 7 countries including 5 confirmed. The Toyota Land Cruiser is also #1 in an estimated 5 nations including 3 confirmed, all in the African and Middle-Eastern region. The 6th most successful model at this little game is a surprise: the Lada Priora is #1 in an estimated 4 countries (all ex-USSR members) including 3 confirmed: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The Pyeonghwa Samchunri is estimated to be #1 in North Korea.

The Hyundai Accent, Skoda Octavia and Toyota Camry are also all #1 in 4 countries but in the case of the Camry it has to be taken with caution as they are all BSCB’s estimates while the Accent is confirmed #1 by official data in 2 of these countries and the Octavia is confirmed in all 4. There are 6 models #1 in 3 countries, 14 cars #1 in 2 countries and 36 models #1 in just one country.

See ‘Read more’ for the full list of all 63 #1 models and which countries they top.