World: Ford-Toyota battle over ‘World’s best-selling car’ title

The 2013 Toyota Auris hatchback will be sold under the Corolla nameplate in some markets.

* See the original The Truth About Cars article by clicking on the title! Many thanks to Bertel *

Over the 24 hours the automotive world has witnessed a little battle between Ford and Toyota about which of the Ford Focus or the Toyota Corolla is the world’s best-selling car over the first 6 months of 2012. You dear readers and I already know the answer to this question, but worldwide numbers are so fickle (exactly which models are included in this tally? is a recurring question) that it is worth a little update on here.

Ford Focus in Rayong, Thailand

Yesterday, the 350 millionth Ford, a Focus produced in Thailand, was produced. The perfect occasion to celebrate another milestone: the fact that the Ford Focus was the worldwide best-seller over the first 7 months of 2012 with 522,000 sales. A massive milestone indeed since the Focus had never claimed the worldwide pole position before, and the Corolla has been the world #1 without interruption for at least 8 years and possibly up to 12…

Yes, the Toyota Corolla is still the best-selling car in the world. 

Interrogated by the Wall Street Journal who found out Toyota claims they sold 722,000 Corollas in the 7 months since the start of the year, Ford amended its press release to say that the Focus was #1 over the first 6 months of 2012 (not seven) with 489,616 units vs. 462,187 for the Corolla. Done deal? Not exactly: Toyota then released Corolla figures for the first half of 2012: 603,840. Note this official figure is consistent with my data of 586,301 units sold in over 60 countries, logically there is about 15,000 actuals more in the final figure.

Ford Focus is Wayne, Michigan USA

Now comes the traditional question (and Ford asked it): yes but how many Matrix, Corolla Rumion and other body shapes are included in these 603,840? Easy, said Toyota: if we only count the Corolla sedan and Auris hatchback, the 2 body styles also available on the globally-sold Focus, we come to 524,000 units for the Corolla, which is therefore still ahead of the Focus at 489,616.

There.

Much ado about nothing, right?

See the original article from The Truth About Cars below.