Best Selling Cars – Matt's blog

Toyota Prius C 

* See the Top 15 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

We are focusing today on the USA’s biggest market, California, up a fantastic 25% year-on-year in 2012 to 1,617,103 registrations, to be compared to +13% in the USA overall. This means that if California was a country, it would be the 10th biggest new car market worldwide, behind Canada (1.68m) and passing South Korea (1.5m) and Italy (1.4m) in the process. 2012 will remain a very important year for the Californian new car market: the year a hybrid car topped the models ranking for the first time. Toyota doesn’t separate sales of the different models in the Prius family in California and as a result the Prius is now the most popular car in the State, up a gargantuan 78% on 2011 to 60,688 sales for an excellent 3.8% market share.

Last year’s leader, the Honda Civic, is down to #2 even though it gains a huge 52% year-on-year to 57,124 units and 3.5%. The Toyota Camry rounds up the podium again with 50,250 sales and 3.1%, up 38% on 2011, while the Honda Accord is down 2 spots to #4 in spite of sales up a very respectable 35% year-on-year to 49,420. Below the Toyota Corolla at #5, the Honda CR-V is up 33% and one rank to #6, meaning the entire Top 6 is composed of Toyotas and Hondas…

In fact, domestic brands only represent 29.7% of overall sales in California vs. 44.5% in the USA overall… There are only two domestic models in the Californian Top 15 this year: the Ford F-Series at #7 with 25,434 units and 1.6% share and the Chevrolet Silverado at #15 with 17,804 units and 1.1%. Notice also the Nissan Altima up 26% to #8 and the Hyundai Sonata up 30% to #9.

Previous post: California (USA) Q4 2012: BMW 3 Series and Mercedes E-Class up

Previous quarter: California (USA) 9 months 2012: 3 Toyotas and 3 Hondas in Top 6!

Full Year 2012 Top 15 models Ranking Table below.

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BMW 3 Series

* See the Top 20 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

Every quarter we now have our rendezvous with Californian new car sales, being the biggest market in the USA. Over the last quarter of 2012, the Californian new car market is up a whopping 22% year-on-year to 371,403 registrations vs. 10% growth in the USA as a whole, bringing the Full Year 2012 total to 1,617,103 units, up 13% on 2011. The Toyota Prius family confirms it is now the most popular model in the State, improving its market share to 3.9% thanks to 14,308 sales. The Honda Civic follows at 13,981 units and 3.8% while the Toyota Camry jumps onto the podium at #3 with 12,362 sales and 3.3%.

Mercedes E-Class

In fact, the entire Top 7 best-sellers over Q4 2012 are identical to the Full Year 2012 ranking, but it’s below that things get interesting, with both BMW and Mercedes models making waves. The BMW 3 Series is up to a fantastic 10th spot over the period at 5,159 units and 1.4%, whereas Mercedes manages to place two models within the Californian Top 15! The C-Class is up to #12 with 5,124 sales while the E-Class is up to #14 at 5,028 units, only 135 sales away from the 9th spot…

Previous post: California (USA) 9 months 2012: 3 Toyotas and 3 Hondas in Top 6!

Full Q4 2012 Top 20 Ranking Table below.

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The Toyota Prius is the best-selling car in California

* See the Top 15 best-selling models by clicking on the title! Many thanks to René *

* Discover Each segment’s Top 5 best-sellers by clicking on the title! *

Thanks to a tip from René I can now share with you the best-sellers in California, America’s largest state in terms of population and potentially also of new car sales. We already know the US new car market is on fire in 2012 with registrations up 14.5% year-on-year after 9 months to 10,899,949 units. Well the Californian new car market does even better: it is up a huge 38% year-on-year in September to 165,422 registrations and 26% year-to-date at 1,245,700 – meaning California captures 11% of the US market and is larger than Italy or Australia. Similarly to the Puerto Rican models ranking we explored a few of days ago, the best-selling models in California are Japanese.

Honda Civic

Whereas in the overall US ranking the Ford F-Series is by far the #1 vehicle, in California it only ranks #7 with just 1.5% market share, but is still the favourite US model. This means the Top 6 best-sellers are 100% Japanese! The Toyota Prius is the most popular car in the State with 46,380 sales and 3.7% share, followed by the Honda Civic at 43,143 and 3.5% and the Honda Accord at 39,027 and 3.1%.

The Toyota Tacoma is #11 in California vs. #29 in the overall US ranking

The Toyota Camry, #2 overall in the US, ranks 4th in California at 37,888 units ahead of the Toyota Corolla/Matrix at 29,743 sales, making it 3 Toyotas in the Top 5. With the Honda CR-V at #6 and 22,475 sales, there are 3 Hondas in the Top 6. Below the Ford F-Series, there is one more Japanese model in the Top 10 – the Nissan Altima at #8, one Korean – the Hyundai Sonata at #9 and one German – the VW Jetta at #10, but no American model until the #15 spot (Chevrolet Silverado).

Scion tC

Notice also the Toyota Tacoma at an excellent 11th spot and 2nd best-selling pick-up truck in the state after the F-Series, the BMW 3 Series up to #13 vs. #49 overall and the Mercedes C-Class up to #16 vs. #61. Further down, the Mercedes E-Class sells 11,369 units (or 25% of its overall US sales), the Honda Fit 7,735 (20%), the BMW 5 Series 7,487 (20% also), the Fiat 500 6,336 (19%), the Lexus IS 5,443 (26%), the Scion tC 3,764 (21%) and the Porsche 911 1,515 (23%).

Previous US post: USA 9 months 2012: Discover the Top 277 All-models ranking!

Full 9 months 2012 Top 15 and each segment’s Top 5 Ranking Tables below.

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