USA: 1985-1991 Detailed Historical Data now available!
The Ford Escort is the best-selling Passenger Car in the US in 1987 and 1988.
Thanks to an avid reader of BSCB, I have now added full models ranking for the USA for each year between 1985 and 1991, slowly but surely filling up the holes in US Historical Data on the site. This is a period where I had previously almost no information about, and it means there is now at least a Top 10 ranking for each year in the past 3 decades! The 1985-1991 period is a hugely important one in the USA as it shows the shift from an almost All-American ranking to Japanese domination in the Passenger Cars sales charts.
The Honda Accord writes history in the US during the eighties.
In 1985, there is only 3 foreign models in the Top 20 best-sellers overall: the Honda Accord, Toyota Hilux/SR5 and Nissan Sentra. The Ford F-Series dominates overall, while the Chevrolet Cavalier, Ford Escort, Chevrolet Celebrity and Oldsmobile Ciera being the most popular passenger cars. Only 6 years afterwards in 1991, the Honda Accord is the best-selling passenger car for the third year running, ranking third overall only 33,000 sales below the leader, still the Ford F-Series! Add to this the Toyota Camry #3 passenger car and #5 overall with over 260,000 sales.
The first Korean car to reach US shores, the Hyundai Excel launched in 1986 and ranked #9 in 1987.
Witness also the arrival of Korean manufacturer Hyundai in 1986, placing the Excel at an unbelievable 9th place overall in 1987 (but crashing and burning afterwards), the birth of US-exclusive Japanese premium brands Acura in 1986, and Lexus & Infiniti in 1989
and the launch by General Motors of the “no haggle” priced Saturn brand in 1990 with a new plant, workforce, dealer network and the manufacturing process in response to the success of Japanese manufacturers. Result: the Saturn S-Series ranks #56 in 1991 for its first full year of sales.
General Motors launches the Saturn brand with S-Series (above) in 1990.
You can check out the entire 1908-2013 USA 43 Historical Data articles here.
Recently updated USA Historical Data articles:
USA 1985: Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Cavalier on top
USA 1986: Chevrolet Celebrity leads passenger cars
USA 1987: Ford places F-Series, Escort and Taurus in Top 4
USA 1988: Chevrolet C/K pickup and Corsica impress
USA 1989: Honda Accord first foreign model to lead passenger cars
USA 1990: Can the Honda Accord ever lead the overall market?
