Iceland: 2001-2023 Historical Data now available

March 17, 2013
Matt Gasnier
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Iceland is without a doubt one of the car markets that suffered the most from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, with sales going from 19,316 in 2007 to 2,750 in 2009 when the market contracted by as much as 89% year-on-year in some months… Thanks to a tip from Alex I now have much more detailed info on the best-selling models in Iceland since 2001. If you have any info prior to 2001 please ensure you get in touch by commenting on this article. From 2005 to 2008 there is a Top 100 models ranking available and from 2009 to 2012 a Top 60/80.

#1 in 2009, the Suzuki Swift broke at least 8 consecutive years of Toyota domination.

Overall Toyota has controlled the Icelandic market for most of the last decade, placing one of its models in pole position for 9 of the last 12 years: the RAV4, Land Cruiser, Corolla and Yaris. It even had 5 models in the Top 6 from 2004 to 2006! But this domination has been weakening of late, with the Suzuki Swift taking the lead in troubled 2009, later passed by the VW Polo then the Skoda Octavia. In 2012 the Yaris resumed Toyota’s winning streak after a 4 year absence at the highest level.

Iceland was the only European country where the Toyota Tundra was widely available.

Iceland is a fascinating car market with potentially one of the world’s strongest share of SUV and 4WD vehicles: 9 of the Top 10 best-sellers in 2022 belonged to these two categories. Historically, Japanese brands have done well in the country, with Subaru a regular performer. Another particularity of the Icelandic car market is the presence of a lot of US models not otherwise (widely) available in Europe like the Ford Explorer, Expedition, Edge and F-Series, various Lincoln or GMC gas guzzlers or the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma. This is due to the country’s location halfway between Europe and America which makes it a little easier to export US models there.

See the direct links to 17 Iceland Historical posts below.

Iceland Historical Data:

Iceland 2001-2002: Toyota RAV4, Yaris and Corolla on top

Iceland 2003: Toyota Land Cruiser takes the lead

Iceland 2004-2005: 5 Toyotas in Top 6, Corolla then Yaris #1

Iceland 2006-2007: Toyota Yaris reigns

Iceland 6 months 2008: Toyota Yaris and Land Cruiser dominate

Iceland 2008: Toyota Yaris and Land Cruiser head to head

Iceland 2009: Suzuki Swift and Subaru Legacy top dismal market

Iceland 7 months 2010: VW Polo in pole position

Iceland 2010: VW Polo shoots up to first place

Iceland 2011: Skoda Octavia takes the lead